She was so many-sided, so many-mooded--"protean-mooded" I called her.

But I called her this, and other and dearer things, in my thoughts only.

Though the declaration of my love urged and trembled on my tongue a thousand times, I knew that it was no time for such a declaration.

If for no other reason, it was no time, when one was protecting and trying to save a woman, to ask that woman for her love.

Delicate as was the situation, not alone in this but in other ways, I flattered myself that I was able to deal delicately with it; and also I flattered myself that by look or sign I gave no advertisement of the love I felt for her.