'I am happy that we agree for once,' she said, with a lift of the eyebrows and a voice to match. 'It is precisely the way in which I have always thought of myself.'
'Follow that out!' said he half laughing, and at the same time clasping a little closer the hand he held.
'Well—I have followed it out all my life. I never do, Mr.
Rollo.'
'Not knowingly. But— How shall I tell you!' said he, in a sort of despair. And the old horse found it was necessary for him to move on.
'It must be said!' he broke out again, 'and there is no one but me to do it. Miss Hazel, you allowed liberties to be taken with you to-night.'
The little hand he was holding shrank perceptibly. Not twitching itself away, but as it were withdrawing itself into itself, and away from him. Otherwise she sat absolutely still.
'Unconsciously,' he went on. 'You did not know it. The pleasure of the play kept you from knowing what it implied.'
'Allowed, did you say?'
'Look back and think,' said he, calmly.
'As if they could, without my knowing it!' she exclaimed. 'As if they would!'—