put it more strongly. "I shall never have courage enough to
enter the house again, if I have made you think meanly of me."

A woman who cared nothing for him would have easily answered this. The
calm heart of Regina began to flutter: something warned her not to trust
herself to speak. Little as he suspected it, Amelius had troubled the
tranquil temperament of this woman. He had found his way to those
secret reserves of tenderness--placid and deep--of which she was hardly
conscious herself, until his influence had enlightened her. She was
afraid to look up at him; her eyes would have told him the truth. She
lifted her long, finely shaped, dusky hand, and offered it to him as the
best answer that she could make.

Amelius took it, looked at it, and ventured on his first familiarity
with her--he kissed it. She only said, "Don't!" very faintly.

"The Queen would let me kiss her hand if I went to Court," Amelius
reminded her, with a pleasant inner conviction of his wonderful
readiness at finding an excuse.

She smiled in spite of herself. "Would the Queen let you hold it?" she
asked, gently releasing her hand, and looking at him as she drew it
away. The peace was made without another word of explanation. Amelius
took a chair at her side. "I'm quite happy now you have forgiven me," he
said. "You don't know how I admire you--and how anxious I am to please
you, if I only knew how!"

He drew his chair a little nearer; his eyes told her plainly that his
language would soon become warmer still, if she gave him the smallest
encouragement. This was one reason for changing the subject. But there
was another reason, more cogent still. Her first painful sense of having
treated him unjustly had ceased to make itself keenly felt; the lower
emotions had their opportunity of asserting themselves. Curiosity,
irresistible curiosity, took possession of her mind, and urged her to
penetrate the mystery of the interview between Amelius and her aunt.

"Will you think me very indiscreet," she began slyly, "if I made a
little confession to you?"

Amelius was only too eager to hear the confession: it would pave the way
for something of the same sort on his part.

"I understand my aunt making the heat in the concert-room a pretence for
taking you away with her," Regina proceeded; "but what astonishes me is
that she should have admitted you to her confidence after so short an
acquaintance. You are still--what shall I say?--you are still a new