"Suppose that I give you your way," he said, hesitatingly; "what is going to happen between you and me?"
The unexpected question scared the girl, and she answered, catching her breath--
"Everything was over between us--ages ago, it seems to me. You have not seen me for a year. You said so yourself."
"Yes! I know," he replied, slowly, and Kate felt that he was watching her keenly. "But now that I do see you again, it is like meeting you for the first time without the trouble of having to make friends."
Kate half rose to her feet, with a slight cry.
"Don't get up!" Hawke exclaimed, and he smoothed her hair caressingly with his hand. "You look so pretty like that."
She clenched her nails in her palms. Her whole nature rose against the man. The mere touch of his fingers turned her sick. At last, however, she forced herself to meet his gaze. She saw that he was going to speak, and began first, coaxing him, while a deadly humiliation set her cheeks ablaze.
"Friends? Yes! We might be friends. Only give me the letters, and I will think of you as a friend!"
"For just so long as it takes you to reach Keswick."
"No; always," she said simply. "You don't know what a woman can forgive when once she has felt as I have felt towards you."