But I wish papa suspected or knew what a VERY NEW THING I am doing.

He does not think of it at all.' 'Darling Elfie, I wish we could be married! It is wrong for me to say it--I know it is--before you know more; but I wish we might be, all the same.

Do you love me deeply, deeply ?' 'No!' she said in a fluster.
At this point-blank denial, Stephen turned his face away decisively, and preserved an ominous silence; the only objects of interest on earth for him being apparently the three or four-score sea-birds circling in the air afar off.
'I didn't mean to stop you quite,' she faltered with some alarm; and seeing that he still remained silent, she added more anxiously, 'If you say that again, perhaps, I will not be quite--quite so obstinate--if--if you don't like me to be.' 'Oh, my Elfride!' he exclaimed, and kissed her.
It was Elfride's first kiss.

And so awkward and unused was she; full of striving--no relenting.

There was none of those apparent struggles to get out of the trap which only results in getting further in: no final attitude of receptivity: no easy close of shoulder to shoulder, hand upon hand, face upon face, and, in spite of coyness, the lips in the right place at the supreme moment.