“I don’t see how you could in fairness, Lorna. I merely want to know why you repelled me the other night, when I tried to kiss you. Tell me if there was any other motive than just plain lack of affection for me. Was that it?”
He was leaning toward her for her reply, and his arm which lay across the back of the seat, touched her shoulders lightly. She did not move from the caress.
“Look here, Mauney,” she said, in such a clear, unhampered tone that he almost started. “I think I can explain. I’ve always liked you a lot. You’ve always been a perfect gentleman to me. I’ve always admired your courtesy at all times. And I’ve always liked your ideas. I think I could have gone on for ever, dreaming life with you if—if—”
“If what, Lorna?”
“If you hadn’t spoiled—I mean, when you tried to take me in your arms, that was a totally unknown idea. Not so much that, perhaps, but it was beyond me entirely. I felt that it symbolized something big, yet something so vastly new and foreign to my mind that I was frightened.”
“Frightened?”
“That’s it, exactly,” she nodded. “I was frightened at having a new vista of life opened up suddenly, that way—unawares, taken off guard, if you can understand. I wasn’t ready for it. You see, my mind is, in many ways, inexperienced. I don’t know men at all. You’ve had more emotional experience than I have. I didn’t mean to be cruel. In fact, that’s why I cried, because I was afraid I had hurt your feelings.”
A street lamp on Crandall Street now blossomed into light and sent a long, glancing shaft against her face. Mauney quivered with attraction.
“Are you actually afraid of me, Lorna?” he asked.