She did not even look up as she replied:

"Mine are poor enough; I prefer those of others. Besides, I have scarcely thought of them for days."

"Are they less insistent?" he asked.

"Don't!" she appealed. "Don't! I am not yet ready to face them. I have lost my courage."

"I will say no more," he said; "but I had thought that you seemed different—ready to surrender. I had hoped so."

She looked up now.

"Are you against me, too?" she demanded.

"Can you believe that?" he asked. "I had thought that I was for you—as we all are."

She smiled.

"You are all making it very hard for me," she told him.