think unpleasant things of her, I can't see--"

"You're making it very difficult for me--you're so strange," she
murmured. "Isn't it something that I've lowered my pride to the earth
in coming here to you? That I've given up Chan? That I'm pleading to
you for forgiveness?"

"It is, of course. I do forgive you," he murmured

"Oh, Jerry, if you knew how I had longed to hear you say that--if you
knew!"

All this while Jerry had been standing beside her in the path while
the girl sat on the rock. I could tell this from the sounds of their
voices. In spite of her accents of endearment, notes which she played
with the deftest touch, I could understand that Master Jerry was still
a little upon his dignity.

"I do forgive you," he repeated, "but I don't just know what your
insinuations meant, Marcia."

"Insinuations! Oh, Jerry!"

"Well, what were they? You didn't accuse Una of anything, or me. But
you meant something--something unpleasant. Una was very much
disturbed--"

"Oh, she was?" No self-control could have concealed the tiny note of
exultation.

"Yes, disturbed and angry. What did you mean, Marcia?"

There was an effective pause. What grimaces she was making for his
benefit I'm sure I can't imagine, but I hope they were worthy of her
talents.

"Poor, dear Jerry!" she sighed. "You're so innocent. I sometimes
wonder whether you're really as innocent as you seem."

"I'm innocent of wronging Una," he said with some spirit.

She couldn't restrain a short laugh at the ingenuousness of the remark
and its tone.

"There are ways and ways of wronging girls, Jerry," she said slowly. I
couldn't see her face, of course, but I knew that her eyes must have
been searching him sidelong under their lashes with peculiar avidity.
"Of course, I don't _say_ that there was anything wrong, but you'll
admit that Una's hunting you out the way she did was _most_
imprudent."

"No, I don't admit it," said Jerry. "If Una was imprudent, so are you,
_here_, today."

"Jerry!" The girl started up, one of her tall French heels within
reach of my fingers. If her heel had been her vulnerable spot I must
have struck it at once, like a viper.

Jerry apparently stood his ground, for the image of Una must have
still been fresh in his memory.

"What is the difference, Marcia?" he asked calmly. "Will you tell me?
Do you think I could hurt _you_?"

She sank upon the rock again, her tone almost too plaintive.

"You're hurting me now, Jer