ld to me at last!'

An instant she wavered. His bliss was almost in his grasp. Then she
sprang up, and Flaxman found himself standing by her, rebuffed and
surprised.

'No, no!', she cried, holding out her hand to him though all the time.
'Oh, it is too soon! I should despise myself, I do despise myself. It
tortures me that I can change and forget so easily; it ought to torture
you. Oh don't ask me yet to--to--'

'To be my wife,' he said calmly, his cheek, a little flushed, his eye
meeting hers with a passion in it that strove so hard for self-control
it was almost sternness.

'Not yet!' she pleaded, and then, after a moment's hesitation, she
broke into the most appealing smiles, though the tears were in her eyes,
hurrying out the broken beseeching words. 'I want a friend so much--a
real friend. Since Catherine left I have had no one. I have been running
riot. Take me in hand. Write to me, scold me, advise me, I will be your
pupil, I will tell you everything. You seem to me so fearfully wise, so
much older. Oh, don't be vexed. And--and--in six months----'

She turned away, rosy as her name. He held her still, so rigidly that
her hands were almost hurt. The shadow of the hat fell over her eyes;
the delicate outlines of the neck and shoulders in the pretty pale
dress were defined against the green hill background. He studied her
deliberately, a hundred different expressions sweeping across his face.
A debate of the most feverish interest was within him. Her seriousness
at the moment, the chances of the future, her character, his own--all
these knotty points entered into it, had to be weighed and decided with
lightning rapidity. But Hugh Flaxman was born under a lucky star, and
the natal charm held good.

At last he gave a long breath; he stooped and kissed her hands.

'So be it. For, six months I will be your guardian, your friend, your
teasing, implacable censor. At the end of that time I will be--well,
never mind what. I give you fair warning.'

He released her. Rose clasped her hands before her and stood, drooping.
Now that she had gained her point, all her bright mocking independence
seemed to have vanished. She might have been in reality the tremulous,
timid child she seemed. His spirits rose; he began to like the _role_
she had assigned to him. The touch of unexpectedness, in all she said
and did, acted with exhilarating force on his fastidious romantic sense.

'Now, then,' he said, picking up her gloves fr