world to suit your happiness.'

'Elfride, you sometimes say things which make you seem suddenly to
become five years older than you are, or than I am; and that
remark is one. I couldn't think so OLD as that, try how I
might....And no lover has ever kissed you before?'

'Never.'

'I knew that; you were so unused. You ride well, but you don't
kiss nicely at all; and I was told once, by my friend Knight, that
that is an excellent fault in woman.'

'Now, come; I must mount again, or we shall not be home by dinner-
time.' And they returned to where Pansy stood tethered. 'Instead
of entrusting my weight to a young man's unstable palm,' she
continued gaily, 'I prefer a surer "upping-stock" (as the
villagers call it), in the form of a gate. There--now I am myself
again.'

They proceeded homeward at the same walking pace.

Her blitheness won Stephen out of his thoughtfulness, and each
forgot everything but the tone of the moment.

'What did you love me for?' she said, after a long musing look at
a flying bird.

'I don't know,' he replied idly.