ed to his side, and, with her hands
linked about his arm, looked up at him anxiously.

"Yes, but it's all right, isn't it? You're not angry with me--not
turning against me?"

"No, it's all right."

"Then, don't let's go. Let's stay here a little longer"

"No, we must go--or Mrs. Dale will be coming to fetch us;" and he
began to walk briskly. "And look here, Norah. I shall inform her I
found you here by yourself, and I have lectured you at full length,
and you've said you'll be good for the future. So don't answer back if
she speaks sharp."

"Oh, I don't mind what she says now;" and Norah laughed happily as she
trotted after him through the trees.

That evening he sat outside on the bench long after the supper table
had been taken away and the kitchen door closed. Quite late, when
Mavis spoke to him from an upper window, he said he must have one more
pipe before he turned in.

Norah had been singing in the kitchen while she washed the plates;
then he had heard her humming softly in the sitting-room; now she had
gone up-stairs and was silent. The thoughts and sensations that had
been suddenly and strangely inhibited a few hours ago came into play
again, warmed his blood once more, repossessed his brain. Soon he was
impotent to struggle against them. As he sat huddled and motionless,
he revived each memory and wilfully renewed its delight. The brick
walls, the timber beams, the flooring boards, and plastered partitions
could not divide her from him; though hidden at a distance, she shed
emanations, fiery atoms, darting sparks, that infallibly reached him:
when he closed his eyes in order not to see the empty space before
him, she herself was here. He could feel again the light weight of her
body upon his knees, her hair brushed against his chin, her face gave
itself to his lips.

Then more remote memories came to join the recent memories, deepening
the spell that subjugated him. He thought of her crying when he teased
her about love and marriage, and when her poor little innocent heart
was bursting because of his pretense of not understanding that she
craved for no love but his. And he thought of how she had looked in
the middle of the night when he covered her with his jacket, and she
stood before him trembling and blushing, with her hair all tumbling
loose. That had been one of the mental pictures which he could not
even make dim, much less obliterate.

He groaned, got up from the bench, and walked very slowl