She came closer than he had expected, and he heard her contralto
voice, quick and defiant:

"I hadn't expected to see you. I didn't quite realize what I was saying.
I should have had more respect for any one's grief."

Having said that, she was going on, but he turned and stopped her. As he
looked at her he reflected that everything had altered since that
day--she most of all. Then the woman had been a little visible in the
child. Now, he fancied, the child survived in the woman only through the
persistence of this old quarrel. He stared at her lips, recalling his
boast that no man should touch them unless it were George Morton. He was
no nearer them than he had been that day. Unless he got nearer some man
would. It was incredible that she hadn't married. She would marry.

"In the sense you mean, I have no grief," he said.

"Then I needn't have bothered. I once said you were a--a----"

"Something melodramatic. A beast, I think it was," he answered. "If you
don't mind I'll walk on with you for a little way."

"No," she said.

"If you please."

"You've no perception," she cried, angrily.

"Don't you think it time," he suggested, "that you ceased treating me
like a groom? It isn't very convincing to me. I doubt if it is to you. I
fancy it's really only your pride. I don't see why you should have so
much where I am concerned."

Her hand made a quick gesture of repulsion.

"You've not changed. You may walk on with me while I tell you this: If
you were like the men I know and can be friends with you'd leave me
alone. Will you stop this persecution? It comes down to that. Will you
stop forcing me to dance with you, to listen to you?"

He smiled, shaking his head.

"I'll make you dance with me more than ever. I've seen very little of
you lately. I hope this winter----"

She stopped, facing him, her cheeks flaming.

"You see! You remind me every time I meet you of just what you are, just
what you came from, just what you said and did that day."

"That is my aim," he smiled.

He moved his hand in the direction of the little house.

"When we're all like that will it make much difference who our fathers
and mothers were?"

She shivered. She started swiftly away.

"Miss Planter!"

The unexpectedness of the naked command may have brought her around. He
walked to her.

"When will you realize," he asked, "that it is unforgivable to turn your
back on life?"

Had he really meant to suggest that she could po