He kissed her wrists and showered her with caresses, his manner full of passionate devotion.
“You hurt just a little,” she declared bravely; “but it was only for a minute. It’s all gone now—now you have kissed it, Dick.”
“If you knew how I hate to leave you even for a little while!” he exclaimed.
“If you knew how I hate to have you go!” she breathed.
“My brave, sweet little cousin!” he said, with the air of a manly lover. “But you must not sit on Frank’s knee, and you must keep away from him as much as you can. Promise me that you will do as I ask.”
“Oh, I’ll promise, Dick!”
“Don’t look at him when he talks to you—don’t look into his eyes. If you do, he will get the best of you, for there is something in his eyes that it is hard to resist. I don’t know what it is, but I have felt it.”
He led her to make many promises of the sort, and she did so, though she knew it would be difficult for her to keep some of them.
“There!” he exclaimed, in satisfaction; “he’ll find he cannot master me! He’ll find he cannot force me to the school that makes cowards and weak men.”
“But he is no coward,” asserted Felicia. “You should have seen him fight the ruffian who was carrying me off the day he first came into this valley. That man was a giant, and he was strong and fierce; but Frank grappled with him, grasped his wrist when he tried to use his knife, threw him, and knocked him senseless. Oh, he must be awfully strong!”