“Shall I drop it into the fire?” she asked, with a half-smile.
The young man sprang up. “No! no!” he cried, “surely you won’t do that! Oh! how very unkind of you!”
She laughed outright. “Well, take it then,” she said, tossing it to him.
He replaced it hastily, and put the book back in the pocket of his coat.
“You are afraid I shall change my mind,” said Isoline.
“Yes, I am.”
She looked at him very softly. “But I shall not,” she said.
At this moment the door opened, and Howlie Seaborne came in carrying an armful of wood which he cast unceremoniously into a corner; when he had done this he addressed Harry. “Shall oi give yew one o’ Parson’s noightshirts?” he inquired, stopping a few paces from him and shouting as though a precipice lay between them.
“What?” said Harry, unable to assimilate his thoughts to the suddenness of the question.