"Only she likes nevertheless what you do to her that way as her lover. She's not too afraid of you yet for that!" Perry explained with a new authority.
This was extraordinary to Ralph—his having gathered such things to tell from that lapse of their consciousness, Molly's and his own, of anything but their possession of each other. "Oh well, I'm glad I have still that advantage!"—and Ralph kept his laugh at least brave. "But was it because they didn't know what to make of us——?" Perry had really arrived at an approach to clear suggestion. "We're lovers so accepted and blessed——!" He would puzzle it out, but appealed to his Companion for help.
"No, it isn't that they were shocked at your freedom"—Perry said—"though you were free!"
"Then why did they make off?" our young man pressed.
"Well, you must get it from themselves."
"Then is there nothing I shall get from you—as my brother-that's-to-be?"
Perry considered of it, resisting confusion. "I'm not your brother yet."
"No"—Ralph also considered: "not in a single morning!" This exchange, none the less, seemed really to further him, and under the aid of it Ralph kept his stand. "But you like me so."
"I like you——?" Perry rather growled it, but it was as if he wondered.
"I mean you all do, and you will, you'll see,—especially if you find you can assist me. It's there," Ralph explained, "that your goodnature will be touched."