I can tell; that you are my queen. I would die
for you, Elfride!'

A rapid red again filled her cheeks, and she looked at him meditatively.
What a proud moment it was for Elfride then! She was ruling a heart with
absolute despotism for the first time in her life.

Stephen stealthily pounced upon her hand.

'No; I won't, I won't!' she said intractably; 'and you shouldn't take me
by surprise.'

There ensued a mild form of tussle for absolute possession of the
much-coveted hand, in which the boisterousness of boy and girl was far
more prominent than the dignity of man and woman. Then Pansy became
restless. Elfride recovered her position and remembered herself.

'You make me behave in not a nice way at all!' she exclaimed, in a tone
neither of pleasure nor anger, but partaking of both. 'I ought not to
have allowed such a romp! We are too old now for that sort of thing.'

'I hope you don't think me too--too much of a creeping-round sort of
man,' said he in a penitent tone, conscious that he too had lost a
little dignity by the proceeding.

'You are too familiar; and I can't have it! Considering the shortness
of the time we have known each other, Mr. Smith, you take too much upon
you. You think I am a country girl, and it doesn't matter how you behave
to me!'

'I assure you, Miss Swancourt, that I had no idea of freak in my mind. I
wanted to imprint a sweet--serious kiss upon your hand; and that's all.'

'Now, that's creeping round again! And you mustn't look into my eyes
so,' she said, shaking her head at him, and trotting on a few paces in
advance. Thus she led the way out of the lane and across some fields in
the direction of the cliffs. At the boundary of the fields nearest the
sea she expressed a wish to dismount. The horse was tied to a post, and
they both followed an irregular path, which ultimately terminated upon
a flat ledge passing round the face of the huge blue-black rock at a
height about midway between the sea and the topmost verge. There, far
beneath and before them, lay the everlasting stretch of ocean; there,
upon detached rocks, were the white screaming gulls, seeming ever
intending to settle, and yet always passing on. Right and left ranked
the toothed and zigzag line of storm-torn heights, forming the series
which culminated in the one beneath their feet.

Behind the youth and maiden was a tempting alcove and seat, formed
naturally in the beetling mass, and wide enough to admit two or three
pe