last, in a dreadful murmur. "You don't want
me a bit. Far better let me go."

Keith loosed his hold, and she sat away from him with a little sigh that
was almost a shudder. Her hands went as if by instinct to her hair,
smoothing it. Another instinct, perhaps, made her turn to him with the
ghost of a reassuring smile.

"Silly, we've been," she said, huskily. "I've been thinking about you
all this time; and this is the end of it. Well, I was a fool to
come...." She sat up straight, away from the back of the settee; but she
did not look at Keith. She was looking at nothing. Only in her mind was
going on the tumult of merciless self-judgment. Suddenly her composure
gave way and she was again in his arms, not crying, but straining him to
her. And Keith was kissing her, blessed kisses upon her soft lips, as if
he truly loved her as she had all this time hoped. She clung to him in a
stupor.

CHAPTER VIII: PENALTIES

i

"Poor old Jenny," Keith was saying, stroking her arm and holding his
cheek against hers.

"You don't want me ..." groaned Jenny.

"Yes."

"I can tell you don't. You don't mean it. D'you think I can't tell!"

Keith raised a finger and lightly touched her hair. He rubbed her cheek
with his own, so that she could feel the soft bristles of his shaven
beard. And he held her more closely within the circle of his arm.

"Because I'm clumsy?" he breathed. "You know too much, Jenny."

"No: I can tell.... It's all the difference in the world."

"Well, then; how many others have kissed you?... Eh?"

"Keith!" Jenny struggled a little. "Let me go now."

"How many?" Keith kissed her cheek. "Tell the whole dreadful truth."

"If I asked you how many girls ... what would you say then?" Jenny's
sombre eyes were steadily watching him, prying into the secrets of his
own. He gave a flashing smile, that lighted up his brown face.

"We're both jealous," he told her. "Isn't that what's the matter?"

"You don't trust me. You don't want me. You're only teasing." With a
vehement effort she recovered some of her self-control. Pride was again
active, the dominant emotion. "So am I only teasing," she concluded.
"You're too jolly pleased with yourself."

"How did you know I was clumsy?" Keith asked. "I shall bite your old
face. I shall nibble it ... as if I was a horse ... and you were a bit
of sugar. Fancy Jenny going home with half a face!" He laughed excitedly
at his forced pleasantry, and the sound of his laug