But never mind Howard; are you going to let me help you as if I were an old friend or a--brother?
Or are you going to be unkind enough to refuse ?" She began to feel driven, and her brows knit as she said: "I think you are very--obstinate, Mr.Orme." "That describes me exactly," he said, cheerfully.

"I'm a perfect mule when I like, and I'm liking it all I know at this moment." "It's absurd--it's ridiculous, as I said," she murmured, half angrily, half laughingly, "and I can't think why you offered, why you want to--to help me!" "Never mind!" said Stafford, his heart beating with anticipatory triumph; for he knew that the woman who hesitates is gained.

"Perhaps I want to get some lessons in farming on the cheap, or--" -- "Perhaps you really want to help the poor girl who, though she is a lady, has to do the work of a farmer's daughter," she said, in a low voice.

"Oh, it is very kind of you, but--" "Then I'll come over to-morrow an hour earlier than this, and you shall show me how to count the sheep, or whatever you do with them," he put in, quickly.
"But I was going to refuse--very gratefully, of course--but to refuse!" "You couldn't; you couldn't be so unkind! I'll ride a hunter I've got; he's rather stiffer than Adonis, and better up to rough work.

I will come to the stream where we first met and wait for you--shall I ?" He said all this as if the matter were settled; and with the sensation of being driven still more strongly upon her, she raised her eyes to his with a yielding expression in them, with that touch of imploration which lurks in a woman's eyes and about the corners of her lips when for the first time she surrenders her will to a man.
"I do not know what to say.