t it, and that made it mine; but after that, your lip touched it,
and that made it yours."

"Did it Then I will lend it you. There--now it is yours again; your lip
has touched it."

"No, it belongs to us both now. Let us divide it."

"By all means; you have a knife."

"No, I will not cut it--that would be unlucky. I'll bite it. There I
shall keep my half: you will burn yours, once you get home, I doubt.'

"You know me not. I waste nothing. It is odds but I make a hairpin of
it, or something."

This answer dashed the novice Gerard, instead of provoking him, to fresh
efforts, and he was silent. And now, the bread and soup being disposed
of, the old scholar prepared to continue his journey. Then came a
little difficulty: Gerard the adroit could not tie his ribbon again as
Catherine had tied it. Margaret, after slily eyeing his efforts for
some time, offered to help him; for at her age girls love to be coy and
tender, saucy and gentle, by turns, and she saw she had put him out of
countenance but now. Then a fair head, with its stately crown of auburn
hair, glossy and glowing through silver, bowed sweetly towards him; and,
while it ravished his eye, two white supple hands played delicately upon
the stubborn ribbon, and moulded it with soft and airy touches. Then a
heavenly thrill ran through the innocent young man, and vague glimpses
of a new world of feeling and sentiment opened on him. And these new and
exquisite sensations Margaret unwittingly prolonged: it is not natural
to her sex to hurry aught that pertains to the sacred toilet. Nay, when
the taper fingers had at last subjugated the ends of the knot, her mind
was not quite easy, till, by a manoeuvre peculiar to the female hand,
she had made her palm convex, and so applied it with a gentle pressure
to the centre of the knot--a sweet little coaxing hand-kiss, as much as
to say, "Now be a good knot, and stay so." The palm-kiss was bestowed on
the ribbon, but the wearer's heart leaped to meet it.

"There, that is how it was," said Margaret, and drew back to take one
last keen survey of her work; then, looking up for simple approval
of her skill, received full in her eyes a longing gaze of such ardent
adoration, as made her lower them quickly and colour all over. An
indescribable tremor seized her, and she retreated with downcast lashes
and tell-tale cheeks, and took her father's arm on the opposite side.
Gerard, blushing at having scared her away with his eyes, too