The action no doubt might seem coquettish, but the tone of her voice
was so genuine, so serious--so agitated even--that I paused:--I
paused in bewilderment and perplexity concerning us both. I observed
that her fingers shook as she held them before her face. That she
should be agitated at seeing me after so long a separation did not
surprise me, I being deeply agitated myself. It was the _nature_ of
her emotion that puzzled me, until suddenly I remembered my mother's
words.

I perceived then that, child of Nature as she still was, some one had
given her a careful training which had transfigured my little Welsh
rustic into a lady. She had not failed to apprehend the anomaly of
her present position--on the moonlit sands with me. Though could not
break free from the old equal relations between us. Winifred had been
able to do so.

'To her,' I thought with shame, 'my offering to kiss her at such a
place and time must have seemed an insult. The very fact of my
attempting to do so must have seemed to indicate an offensive
consciousness of the difference of our social positions. It must
have, seemed to show that I recognised a distinction between the
drunken organist's daughter and a lady.'

I saw now, indeed, that she felt this keenly; and I knew that it was
nothing but the sweetness of her nature, coupled with the fond
recollection of the old happy days, that restrained that high spirit
of hers, and prevented her from giving expression to her indignation
and disgust.

All this was shown by the appealing look on her sweet, fond face, and