Do you think you'll feel inclined to ask me again?
Isn't it natural that a man should hate a scene of that kind?
I only hope that you won't think I easily faint; I don't; I've never--" Traill leant forward on his knees.

Understanding was dawning in him, it burnt a light in his eyes.
"Do you want to come again, then ?" he asked.
So keen was he upon getting his answer, that he could not see the climax of hysteria towards which he was bringing her.

But against that she was fighting, most fiercely of all.

Like the rising water in a gauge, it was leaping in sudden bounds within her.

But to break into tears, to murmur incoherently between laughter and sobbing that it could not be helped, but she loved him, wildly, passionately, would give every shred of her body into his hands if he would but take it--against this, in the sweating of her whole strength, she was battling lest he should guess her secret.
"Do you want to come again, then ?" he repeated, when she continued to look at him with frightened eyes, saying nothing.
"Yes, of course; of course I do." "But why--why ?" he insisted.
This reached the summit of his cruelty--blind cruelty it may have been--but it dragged her also to the climax of her mood.