rolley do'esn't fly the
wire."

"What wire?" she asked, her forehead knitted to a question.

"Oh, the wire that's over the tracks of respectability and vested
interests and special privilege."

She had been looking at him, but now her gaze went to the fire with that
slow tilt of the chin he liked. Another color wave swept the oval of the
soft cheeks.

"You've got more friends than you think," she said in a low voice.

"I've got one little friend I wouldn't like to lose."

She did not speak and his hand moved forward to cover hers. Instantly
a wild and insurgent emotion tingled through him. He felt himself
trembling and could not steady his nerves.

Without a word Nellie looked up and their eyes met. Something electric
flashed from one to another. Her shy fear of him was adorable.

"Oh, don't, don't!" she murmured. "What will you think of me now?"

He had leaned forward and kissed her on the lips.

Jeff sprang to his feet, the muscles in his lean cheeks standing
out. Some bell of warning was ringing in him. He was a man, young and
desirous, subject to all the frailties of his sex, holding experiences
in his past that had left him far from a puritan. And she was a woman,
of unschooled impulses, with unsuspected banked passions, an innocent
creature in whom primeval physical life rioted.

He moved toward the door, his left fist beating into the palm of his
right hand. He must protect her, against himself--and against her
innocent affection for him.

She fluttered past him, barring the way. Her cheeks were flaming with
shame.

"You despise me. Why did I let you?" A sob swelled up into her soft
round throat.

"You blessed lamb," he groaned.

"You're going to leave me. You--you don't want me for a friend any
longer."

Her lips trembled--the red little lips that always reminded him of a
baby's with its Cupid's bow. She was on the verge of breaking down. Jeff
could not stand that. He held out his hands, intending to take hers and
explain that he was not angry or disappointed at her. But somehow he
found her in his arms instead, supple and warm, vital youth flowing in
the soft cheeks' rich coloring and in the eyes quick and passionate with
the tender abandon of her sex.

He set his teeth against the rush of desire that flooded him as her soft
body clung to his. The emotional climax he had vaguely feared had leaped
upon them like an uncaged tiger. He fought to stamp down the fires that
blazed up in him. Tim