It was the first time she had touched me, or shown emotion toward me--emotion of the sort for which I was now eagerly longing.

I did not return her pressure.

I merely let her hold my hands until she dropped them.

I wanted to do a dozen things, but there is nothing stronger than the unbroken barriers of a boy's modesty--barriers strong as steel, which once broken down become as though they never were; while a woman even in her virgin innocence, is always offering unconscious invitation, always revealing ways of seeming approach, always giving to the stalled boy, arguments against his bashfulness--arguments which may prove absurd or not when he acts upon them.

It is the way of a maid with a man, Nature's way--but a perilous way for such a time and such a situation.
That night we sat about the tiny camp-fire and talked.