He nodded, one hand slowly caressing the dog's head where it lay across
his knees.

She watched him a moment, hesitated, then smiling a little: "So now I
know the worst about you; do I not?" she concluded.

He did not answer; she waited, the smile still curving her red mouth.
Had she been too severe? She wondered. "You may help me to my feet," she
said sweetly. She was very young.

He rose at once, holding out his hands to aid her in that pleasantly
impersonal manner so suited to him; and now they stood together in the
purple dusk of the uplands--two people young enough to take one another
seriously.

"Let me tell you something," she said, facing him, white hands loosely
linked behind her. "I don't exactly understand how it has happened, but
you know as well as I do that we have formed a--an acquaintance--the sort
that under normal conditions requires a long time and several
conventional and preliminary chapters. . I should like to know what you
think of our performance."

"I think," he said laughing, "that it is charming."

"Oh, yes; men usually find the unconventional agreeable. What I want to
know is why I find it so, too?"

"Do you?" A dull colour stained his cheek-bones.