Even his prejudice against her red hair had changed to something like hungry admiration.

Leonard felt for the first moment since he had known her that she was a woman; and that, with relation to her, he was a man.
And at the moment all the man in him asserted itself.

It was with half love, as he saw it, and half self-assertion that he answered her question: 'The day you asked me to marry you! Oh! what a fool I was not to leap at such a chance! I should have taken you in my arms then and kissed you till I showed you how much I loved you.

But that will all come yet; the kissing is still to come! Oh! Stephen, don't you see that I love you?
Won't you tell me that you love me still?
Darling!' He almost sprang at her, his arms extended to clasp her.
'Stop!' Her voice rang like a trumpet.

She did not mean to submit to physical violence, and in the present state of her feeling, an embrace from him would be a desecration.