"'Yes; but nothing harms me. Being a man, I know how to take care of myself.'
"'Is it a part of manhood to be without feeling?'
"'And you charge me with that?'
"'Yes, I do, or you would never speak of me with an idea that I could become a brilliant coquette.'
"'Indeed! Why, are you not a woman?'
"I turned to move away. There was something bitter in his utterance of the last word that irritated me.
"He followed me.
"'You did not hear me out,' he said;—'and a beautiful woman—can such rare beings escape admiration?'
"Still I walked on, leaving the live-oak and magnolia-tree behind. His last speech seemed hollow and conventional. Did he think to appease me by commonplace flattery like that?
"He walked by my side in silence some minutes, looking earnestly in my face when it turned to the moonlight. All at once he broke out earnestly, passionately, throwing off all the constraint that had made him seem so artificial.