ly would."

"I wouldn't blame either of them," says he. "I don't want to sneak
around. I'm going away again----"

"What made you come back?" she says.

"Because I was sick in my heart. Because I thought I could look over
once in a while and see you. But when I came back, here was this cursed
fence and I couldn't see you any more. I thought I'd go mad. Maybe I
have; I don't know."

"With or without the fence," says Bonnie Bell, "how could our circles
cross, yours and mine?"

"Circles!" says he. "Circles! What are circles? I've heard this talk of
circles all my life," says he. "I've seen it going on all around me.
It's rot--rot! It's my misfortune to find one so far above me."

"My money?" says she, scornful. "I've a lot of it."

He didn't say a word to that for a long time.

"Did you really think that of me for a minute?" says he at last.

"You take it for granted that I've thought of you at all?" says she.

"I wouldn't of dared," says he--and it sounded like the truth, through
the door. "Don't class me that way!"

"How can a girl tell?" says she. "Men talk like this to girls----"

"Have they talked to you? Who was it?"

"My social opportunities," says she slow and bitter-like, "seem to be
confined to our neighbors' gardener."

"Don't!" says he. "Oh, don't! I don't want to see you hurt, even by your
own tongue."

I never'd heard any man hand out any talk of this sort to any girl
before. It was right interesting and I was glad I listened.

"How can a girl tell?" says she, like she was talking to herself.

"Shorely she can't tell all at once," he answers. "I'd never ask you to
do more than wait. I'd want to go away and stay away till I could come
in at your front door and be welcome," says he. "I wouldn't ask you to
decide one thing now. But, as for me, I decided everything long ago."

She didn't say nothing.

"As to your money," says he after a while, "listen to me. Look at
me--look close. Look into my eyes. Am I not honest? Tell me--if truth
like mine can be mistaken for deceit, then what chance has any man on
earth?"

She didn't answer, and he goes on like he had stepped up closer--I don't
know but what he did.

"Look into my eyes," says he. "Look at me close. Maybe that'll help me
some, for shorely you can see how much I----"

"Don't!" says she. "Don't!"

I don't believe she looked into his eyes at all.

"I wouldn't touch you," says he. "I wouldn't touch your hand--I wouldn't
touch the he