back. Columbine, don't tell me as you want him
to!"

His expression for the moment was formidable. She caught an ominous
gleam in the stern eyes, but almost immediately they softened. He
uttered a sigh that ended in a groan. "Now I'm being a brute to you,
when there's nothing that I wouldn't do for your sake." His voice shook
a little. "You won't believe it, but it's true--it's true."

"Why shouldn't I believe it?" she said swiftly. She had begun to tremble
in his hold.

He looked at her with an odd wistfulness. "Because I'm too big an
oaf--to make you understand," he said.

"And that is why you have set me free?" she questioned.

He bent his head, almost as if the sudden question embarrassed him.
"Yes, that," he said after a moment. "And because I care too much about
you to--marry you against your will."

"And you call that love?" she said.

He made a slight gesture of surprise. "It is love," he said simply.

His arms were still around her, but she had only to move to be free. She
did not move, save that she quivered like a vibrating wire, quivered and
hid her face.

"Rufus!" she said.

"Yes?" His head was bent above hers, but he could only see her black
hair, so completely was her face averted from him.

Her voice came, tensely whispering. "What if I were--willing to marry
you?"

Something of her agitation had entered into him. A great quiver went
through him also. But--"You're not," he said quietly, with conviction.

A trembling hand strayed upwards, feeling over his neck and throat,
groping for his face. "Rufus"--again came the tense whisper--"how do you
know that?"

He took the wandering hand and pressed it softly against his cheek.
"Because you don't love me, Columbine," he said.

"Ah!" A low sob escaped her; she lifted her head suddenly; the tears
were running down her face. "But--but--you could teach me, Rufus. You
could teach me what love--true love--is. I want the real thing--the real
thing. Will you give it to me? I want it--more than anything else in
the world." She drew nearer to him with the words, like a frozen
creature seeking warmth, and in a moment her arms were slipping round
his neck. "You are so true--so strong!" she sobbed. "I want to forget--I
want to forget that I ever loved--any one but you."

His arms were close about her again. He pressed her so hard against his
heart that she felt its strong beating against her own. His eyes gazed
straight into hers, and in them she saw a