He could not tell her,--the words slunk back into his coward heart unspoken.
She stared at him in wonder and perplexity, and exclaimed,--"Dear Clarence, how strangely you act! I am afraid you are not well.

Your brow is hot," said she, laying her hand on his forehead; "you have been travelling too much for your strength." "It is not that," he replied.

"I feel a sense of suffocation, as if all the blood was rushing to my throat.

Let me get the air." And he rose and walked to the window.

Anne hastened and brought him a glass of water, of which he drank a little, and then declared himself better.
After this, he stood for a long time with her clasped in his arms; then giving her one or two passionate kisses, he strained her closer to him and abruptly left the house, leaving Little Birdie startled and alarmed by his strange behaviour..