-organ had begun to play the very waltz it had
played the afternoon when Mr. Stone had been so ill. Those two were
neither of them conscious of that tune, too absorbed in their emotions;
and yet, quietly, it was bringing something to the girl's figure like
the dowering of scent that the sun brings to a flower. It was bringing
the compression back to Hilary's lips, the flush to his ears and cheeks,
as a draught of wind will blow to redness a fire that has been choked.
Without knowing it, without sound, inch by inch he moved nearer to her;
and as though, for all there was no sign of his advance, she knew of
it, she stayed utterly unmoving except for the deep breathing that so
stirred the warm youth in her. In that stealthy progress was the history
of life and the mystery of sex. Inch by inch he neared her; and she
swayed, mesmerising his arms to fold round her thus poised, as if she
must fall backward; mesmerising him to forget that there was anything
there, anything in all the world, but just her young form waiting for
him--nothing but that!

The barrel-organ stopped; the spell had broken! She turned round to
him. As a wind obscures with grey wrinkles the still green waters of
enchantment into which some mortal has been gazing, so Hilary's reason
suddenly swept across the situation, and showed it once more as it was.
Quick to mark every shade that passed across his face, the girl made as
though she would again burst into tears; then, since tears had been so
useless, she pressed her hand over her eyes.

Hilary looked at that round, not too cleanly hand. He could see her
watching him between her fingers. It was uncanny, almost horrible,
like the sight of a cat watching a bird; and he stood appalled at the
terrible reality of his position, at the sight of his own future with
this girl, with her traditions, customs, life, the thousand and one
things that he did not know about her, that he would have to live with
if he once took her. A minute passed, which seemed eternity, for into it
was condensed every force of her long pursuit, her instinctive clutching
at something that she felt to be security, her reaching upwards, her
twining round him.

Conscious of all this, held back by that vision of his future, yet
whipped towards her by his senses, Hilary swayed like a drunken man.
And suddenly she sprang at him, wreathed her arms round his neck, and
fastened her mouth to his. The touch of her lips was moist and hot. The
scent