u go again, exaggerating and catching up my words! Who said I
disliked you? We were not talking of likes or dislikes. We were
talking of knowing each other properly. I wouldn't trouble my head if
you were an ordinary, empty-headed girl, but I know you are not. There
is another side to your character, and I want to see and know you in it,
but you evade me, and refuse to show yourself. I suppose I am not worth
the trouble of talking to seriously?"

Mollie shook her head dejectedly.

"I am not evading, I am not hiding anything. I'm nineteen, and out for
a holiday. It's the first taste of luxury I've ever known. I enjoyed
it so much,"--unconsciously to herself she used the past, not the
present, tense--"that surely it was natural for me to be light-hearted.
I am not highly educated, and I've lived a very quiet life. It's only
natural that I seem stupid in comparison with other girls you have met.
I suppose they are very clever and well read?"

Jack kept his eyes on the road, mentally classifying the girls with whom
he had been most closely brought in contact in his town life. Yes! they
were for the most part accomplished and clever; but were they not also
apt to be discontented with their lot, given to grumbling at the
restrictions of home life, and to imagine themselves ill-used and
unappreciated? Mollie's radiant good-humour and unconsciousness of self
were qualities unknown among them. What poor, anaemic images they
appeared beside her! Yet he was continually provoked by the very
cheerfulness which he mentally approved. Jack frowned, puzzled and
disquieted. As a rule, he was at no loss to account for his prejudices,
but for once he found himself completely mystified. What exactly was it
that he wanted of Mollie Farrell, the lack of which rankled in his
veins? He could not tell, and annoyance with self gave an added touch
of irritation to his tone.

"Oh, if you cannot distinguish between becoming a bookworm and talking
seriously once in a way, there is no more to be said! I'm sorry I
spoke. Now I suppose you will be offended with me, and the day will be
spoiled?"

It was not a gracious speech, but Jack did not feel gracious, and he had
not much control over his temper. An inner voice informed him that he
was behaving like a cad, and he acknowledged the truth of the
indictment, while in the same moment he was prepared to reply more
irritably than before.

He had not the chance, however, for Moll