"Ah, why didn't you tell me then?"
"I was afraid, sweetheart."
"Of what? Of what?"
"Why, of you. You had been so cruel."
Barbara's head, still strained far as could be from mine, now drew nearer by an ace, and then she launched at me the charge of most enormity, the indictment that justified all my punishment.
"You had kissed her before my eyes, here, sir, where we are now, in my own Manor Park," said Barbara.
I took my arms from about her, and fell humbly on my knee.
"May I kiss so much as your hand?" said I in utter abasement.
She put it suddenly, eagerly, hurriedly to my lips.