She turned back quickly. "Come on," she said, "let's get back to the house. They'll wonder what on earth we're doing."
He dropped his hand to hers, and pulled on it slightly.
"Listen," he pleaded. "Stop a minute and listen."
She screwed her hand deftly out of his, and drew aside.
"Oh, please leave me alone, Guy!" she cried. "It's no good. I couldn't dream of it. I'm never going to marry."
Still he persisted incoherently, unattractively, and with the increasing daring of swelling desire.
"No, I tell you," she ejaculated, laughing a little nervously. "Can't you take 'no' for an answer? You are not going to annoy me just because we happen to be alone, are you?"
He dropped his hands to his side, and was silent.
"Now, don't let's say any more about it," said Vanessa, feeling very much relieved. She had the sound instinct that informed her that this man's "clean-mindedness" was revolting, and breathed fast and irregularly at the thought of the danger she imagined she had been in. If he had kissed her with those uneloquent and untrained lips of his, impure in their purity, she would never have forgiven herself.
"Look at the moon," she said, as she strode rapidly back to the house. "It is beginning to wane. I wonder if the weather will change with it."