She gazed at him incredulously, then suddenly her cheeks lost their colour and she stood up under the fir-tree.
"Must I take them or will you give them up, Karen?" he asked, laughing, as he rose.
She took a step backward, away from him. The tree-trunk checked her.
"You know I can't give them to you," she said unsteadily. "It would be dishonourable."
"Am I to take them?"
"Are you going to?"
"Do you mean to say that rather than surrender them you would endure such violence as that?"
"I promised.... Are you going to—to hurt me, Kervyn?" she stammered.
"I'll try not to."
She stood there, breathing fast, white, defiant.