you; I will adore you. Come, only
come to me."

His voice was husky with emotion; his last words were scarcely audible,
said within his breath in a high strain of passion which had got beyond
his control. The contrast between this tremendous force of feeling and
her absolute youthful calm was beyond description. It was more wonderful
than anything ever represented on the tragic stage. Only in the depth
and mystery of human experience could such a wonderful juxtaposition be.

"Mr. Derwentwater," she said, trembling a little, "I cannot understand
you. Go away, oh, go away!"

"Bice!"

"Go away, oh, go away! I am not able to bear it; no one is ever so
serious. I am not great enough, nor old enough. Don't you know," cried
Bice, with a little stamp of her foot, "I like the other way best? Oh,
go away, go away!"

He stood quiet, silently gazing at her till he had regained his power of
speech, which was not for a moment or two. Then he said hoarsely, "You
like--the other way best?"

She clasped her hands together with a mingling of impatience and wonder
and rising anger. "I am made like that," she cried. "I don't know how to
be so serious. Oh, go away from me. You tr-rouble me. I like the other
best."

He never knew how he got out of the strange, unnatural atmosphere of the
house in which he seemed to leave his heart behind him. The perfumes,
the curtains, the half lights, the blending draperies, were round him
one moment; the next he found himself in the greenness of the Park, with
the breeze blowing in his face, and his dream ended and done with.

He had a kind of vision of having touched the girl's reluctant hand, and
even of having seen a frightened look in her eyes as if he had awakened
some echo or touched some string whose sound was new to her. But if that
were so, it was not he, but only some discovery of unknown feeling that
moved her. When he came to himself, he felt that all the innocent
morning people in the Park, the children with their maids, the sick
ladies and old men sunning themselves on the benches, the people going
about their honest business, cast wondering looks at his pale face and
the agitation of his aspect. He took a long walk, he did not know how
long, with that strange sense that something capital had happened to
him, something never to be got over or altered, which follows such an
incident in life. He was even conscious by and by, habit coming to his
aid, of a curious question in his mind