"More than I--dare tell you."
"Rodney."
"Stella."
"I hope one day, before very long, you'll find courage enough."
The challenge was a direct one. In such matters he was such a creature of impulse that it set his pulses galloping. They had reached a spot where they had for sole society some queer-looking birds who peered at them through the wires which confined them to their runs.
"Stella, you mustn't tempt me. If you only knew what I'd give to be able to take you in my arms."
"Rodney, it isn't fair of you to talk like that. You say that sort of thing, and make me feel as if the world were whirling round and round, and then you go no farther."
"You know why I go no farther."
"I don't! I don't!"
As she turned and looked at him he saw how her cheeks were flushed; that tears were in her pretty eyes; how her lips were twisted as by physical pain. He really was so fond of her that the sight of her suffering moved him almost beyond endurance. Careless of spectators who might come at any moment to look at the birds, he took both her hands in his.