ventured to take possession of Barres' arm:

"Could you and I sit down over here by ourselves?" she asked.

He smiled, always amused by her increasing confidence and affection,
and always a little touched by it, so plainly she revealed herself, so
quaintly--sometimes very quietly and shyly, sometimes with an ardent
impulse too swift for self-conscious second thoughts which might have
checked her.

So they seated themselves in the carved compartments of an ancient
choir-stall and she rested one elbow on the partition between them
and set her rounded chin in her palm.

"You pretty thing," he said lightly.

At that she blushed and smiled in the confused way she had when
teased. And at such times she never looked at him--never even
pretended to sustain his laughing gaze or brave out her own
embarrassment.

"I won't torment you, Sweetness," he said. "Only you ought not to let
me, you know. It's a temptation to make you blush; you do it so
prettily."

"Please----" she said, still smiling but vividly disconcerted again.

"There, dear! I won't. I'm a brute and a bully. But honestly, you
ought not to let me."

"I don't know how to stop you," she admitted, laughing. "I could kill
myself for being so silly. Why is it, do you suppose, that I blu----"

She checked herself, scarlet now, and sat motionless with her head
bent over her clenched palm, and her lip bitten till it quivered.
Perhaps a flash of sudden insight had answered her own question before
she had even finished asking it. And the answer had left her silent,
rigid, as though not daring to move. But her bitten lip trembled, and
her breath, which had stopped, came swiftly now, desperately
controlled. But there seemed to be no control for her violent little
heart, which was racing away and setting every pulse a faster pace.

Barres, more uneasy than amused, now, and having before this very
unwillingly suspected Dulcie of an exaggerated sentiment concerning
him, inspected her furtively and sideways.

"I won't tease you any more," he repeated. "I'm sorry. But you
understand, Sweetness; it's just a friendly tease--just because we're
such good friends."

"Yes," she nodded breathlessly. "Don't notice me, please. I don't seem
to know how to behave myself when I'm with you----"

"What nonsense, Dulcie! You're a wonderful comrade. We have bully
times when we're together. Don't we?"

"Yes."

"Well, then, for the love of Mike! What's a little teasing between
fri