Naturally he suppressed, perhaps he had even forgotten, the critical amusement and irritation she had often excited in him.

He remembered, he spoke only of sympathy, delight, pleasure--of his sense, as it were, of slaking some long-felt moral thirst at the well of her fresh feeling.

So she had attracted him first,--by a certain strangeness and daring--by what she _said_-- "Now--and above all by what you _are_!" he broke out suddenly, moved out of his even speech.

"Oh! it is too much to believe--to dream of! Put your hand in mine, and say again that it is really _true_ that we two are to go forward together--that you will be always there to inspire--to help--" And as she gave him the hand, she must also let him--in this first tremor of a pure passion--take the kiss which was now his by right.

That she should flush and draw away from him as she did, seemed to him the most natural thing in the world, and the most maidenly.
Then, as their talk wandered on, bit by bit, he gave her all his confidence, and she had felt herself honoured in receiving it.