Their hands had mutually clasped, and Hendrickson was holding that of Jessie tightly compressed within his own.
The first to regain self-possession was Miss Loring.

With a quick motion she withdrew her hand, and moved back a single step.

The mantling flush left her brow, and the startled eyes looked calmly into the young man's face.
"Have you been away from the city, Mr.Hendrickson ?" she inquired, in a voice that gave but few signs of feeling.
"No." He could not trust himself to utter more than a single word.
"I have missed you from the old places," she said.
"Have you?
It is something, even to be missed ?" He could not suppress the tremor in his voice.
"Good morning!" Jessie almost sprang past him, and hurried away.

The tempter was at her side; and she felt it to be an hour of weakness.

She must either yield or fly--and she fled; fled with rapid unsteady feet, pausing not until the door of her own chamber shut out all the world and left her alone with Heaven.