"Won't you try, dear? That's all I'll ask for, now."

"Why, yes," she said, her wide blue eyes fixed upon his. "I'd try almost
anything--for you, but I'm only a tomboy."

Doctor Jack caught her cold little hands in his. "Kiss me," he said,
huskily.

Juliet's face burned, but she lifted her lips to his, obediently and
simply as a child. The man hesitated for an instant, then pushed her
away from him; not unkindly, but firmly.

"No, I won't take it, Princess," he said, in a strange tone. "I'll wait
until you wake up." "I'm--not asleep," she stammered.

"You are in some ways." Then he added, irrelevantly, "Thank God!"

"I don't know," remarked Juliet, at the end of an uncomfortable pause,
"what to do with myself. I don't want to stay here alone and I wouldn't
go anywhere near them--not for the world."

"Where did you say you were going, when I came?"

"To Aunt Francesca's--Madame Bernard, you know."

"Good business," he answered, nodding vigorous approval. "Come on. She
seems to be the unfailing refuge of the shipwrecked mariner in this
district. If I'm not much mistaken, she'll take you into her big house
and her bigger heart."