I only wanted your denial." "Well then, you have it." "Upon your honour ?" "Upon my honour:" And she made a point even, our young woman, of not turning away.

Her grip of her shawl had loosened--she had let it fall behind her; but she stood there for anything more and till the weight should be lifted.
With which she saw soon enough what more was to come.

She saw it in Charlotte's face, and felt it make between them, in the air, a chill that completed the coldness of their conscious perjury.

"Will you kiss me on it then ?" She couldn't say yes, but she didn't say no; what availed her still, however, was to measure, in her passivity, how much too far Charlotte had come to retreat.

But there was something different also, something for which, while her cheek received the prodigious kiss, she had her opportunity--the sight of the others, who, having risen from their cards to join the absent members of their party, had reached the open door at the end of the room and stopped short, evidently, in presence of the demonstration that awaited them.