"Don't--don't answer without thinking! I know I have startled you, that I ought not to have spoken so soon, while you only know so little of me--you'd naturally say 'no,' and send me away.

But if you think you can like me--learn to love me--" He took her hand, hanging so temptingly near his own; but she drew it away.
"No; don't touch me!" she said, with a little catch in her voice.

"I want to think--to understand." She paused for a moment, her eyes still seeking the distant hills, as if in their mysterious heights she might find something that should explain this great mystery, this wonderful thing that had happened to her.

At last, with a singular gesture, so girlish, so graceful that it made him long still more intensely to take her in his arms, she said in a low voice: "I do not know--No! I do not want you to touch me, please!" His hand fell to his side.

"I can't answer you.