"But I cannot," he said quickly; "if I could I should be unworthy of
even your friendship. If you must reject it, do not make me feel the
shame of thinking you believe me capable of wanton trifling. I know that
this avowal is abrupt to you, but it is not to me. You have known
me only for three months, but these three months have been to me the
realization of three years' dreaming!" As she remained looking at him
with bright, curious eyes, but still shaking her fair head distressedly,
he moved nearer and caught her hand in the little pale lilac thread
glove that was, nevertheless, too wide for her small fingers, and said
appealingly: "But why should YOU forget it? Why must it be a forbidden
topic? What is the barrier? Are you no longer free? Speak, Miss
Dows--give me some hope. Miss Dows!--Sally!"

She had drawn herself away, distressed, protesting, her fair head turned
aside, until with a slight twist and narrowing of her hand she succeeded
in slipping it from the glove which she left a prisoner in his eager
clasp. "There! Yo' can keep the glove, co'nnle," she said, breathing
quickly. "Sit down! This is not the place nor the weather for husking
frolics! Well!--yo' want to know WHY yo' mustn't speak to me in that
way. Be still, and I'll tell yo'."

She smoothed down the folds of her frock, sitting sideways on the bank,
one little foot touching the road. "Yo' mustn't speak that way to me,"
she went on slowly, "because it's as much as yo' company's wo'th, as
much as OUR property's wo'th, as much maybe as yo' life's wo'th! Don't
lift yo' comb, co'nnle; if you don't care for THAT, others may. Sit
still, I tell yo'! Well, yo' come here from the No'th to run this
property for money--that's square and fair business; THAT any fool here
can understand--it's No'th'n style; it don't interfere with these fools'