The significance of the kiss was still obscure to her, though she had frequently encountered the word and act in the Old and New Testaments and latterly in novels.

Men had tried to kiss her--unshaven derelicts, some of them terrible--but she had always managed to escape.

What had urged her to wrench loose and fly was the guarding instinct of the good woman.

Something namelessly abhorrent in the eyes of those men...! She knew what arms were for--to fold and embrace and to hold one tightly; but why men wished to kiss women was still a profound mystery.

No matter how often she came across this phase in love stories, there was never anything explanatory: as if all human beings perfectly understood.