And this behavior of hers went forward, at last, without the slightest leaven of apprehension on her part, but her shyness remained.

It was so marked and so novel in her--with reference to myself--that I could not fail to be sensible to it.

It was as if she divined that mad notions might still lurk within my untaught mind to be reasons why she should fear me; but that her confidence in my self-mastery could not, at the same time, be too openly shown.
Tacitly, it was as if we had treated together; a treaty that bound me to observe a perpetual truce.

My arms were forever laid down, and she, who had once so feared me, was now free to wander when she would within the lines of an honorable enemy.

That she should walk there with increasing frequency as the days passed was a tribute to my powers of restraint which I was too wise to undervalue.