"If it is the best you have to give," he said coldly. "Still I may perhaps be pardoned if I ask why I need the grace of an amnesty at all. What is my offence?"
"Who accused you of any?" she queried evasively.
"Is it a sin of omission, or of commission?" he persisted.
"Nowadays we seem only to talk in conundrums of great moral import," she said. "It doesn't seem to me to amount to much."
Her companion looked at her as might at the sphinx one whom that monster gave the choice between guessing her riddle, and being devoured. A sense of irritation struggled with his love. He felt at once the annoyance of one who is trifled with, and the strong tenderness of his regard for this slender woman before him. He came a step nearer to her.
"Does any thing seem to you to amount to much?" he demanded. "I think sometimes that you are only half human. You draw men on to love you, and then give only mockery in return."
"If there were only a rock in the middle of Black-Clear Eddy," Patty returned, with an affectation of the utmost deliberation, "I would certainly get a harp, and play the Loreley."
She raised her eyes as she spoke, and they met his. For an instant the two regarded each other as if each strove for mastery in that long, deep glance. Then she turned away once more.
"We had better go to the house," she said. "The grass is very wet."
He took a long stride towards her, and caught her by the arms, looking full into her face.