Can you give me what I ask ?' The smile which touched his lips so seldom was on them now.

He showed no agitation, but the light of his eyes was very vivid as they read her expression.

Annabel had stayed her steps; for a moment she looked troubled.

His words were not unanticipated, but the answer with which she was prepared was more difficult to utter than she had thought it would be.

It was the first time that a man had spoken to her thus, and though in theory such a situation had always seemed to her very simple, she could not now preserve her calm as she wished.