I quite meant to go with you--only it went out of my head." "That's a pretty excuse, isn't it, to offer a man ?" "Well, you aren't the only one I've offered it to," she dimpled enchantingly, "the rector had to be satisfied with it as well.

He asked me, too, and when I forgot I'd promised you, I said I'd go with him to see old Abigail.

Then I forgot that, too," she added with a penitent sigh, "and went down to the low grounds." "You managed to come up in time to meet Mr.Jonathan at the cross-roads," he commented with bitterness.
A less daring adventurer than Molly would have hesitated at his tone and grown cautious, but a certain blithe indifference to the consequences of her actions was a part of her lawless inheritance from the Gays.
"I think him very good-looking, don't you ?" she inquired sweetly.
"Good-looking?
I should think not--a fat fop like that." "Is he fat?
I didn't notice it--but, of course, I didn't mean that he was good-looking in your way, Abel." The small flowerlike shadows trembled across her face, and beneath her feet the waves churned a creamy foam that danced under her like light.
His eyes warmed to her, yet he held back, gripped by a passion of jealousy.

For the first time he felt that he was brought face to face with a rival who might prove to have the advantage.
"I am coming over!" called Molly suddenly, and a minute later she stood in the square sunshine that entered the mill door.
Had he preserved then his manner of distant courtesy, it is probable that she would have melted, for it was not in her temperament to draw back while her prey showed an inclination for flight.

But it was his nature to warm too readily and to cool too late, a habit of constitution which causes, usually, a tragedy in matters of sex.
"You oughtn't to treat me so, Molly!" he exclaimed reproachfully, and made a step toward her.
"I couldn't help forgetting, could I?
It was your place to remind me." Thrust, to his surprise, upon the defensive he reached for her hand, which was withdrawn after it had lain an instant in his.
"Well, it was my fault, then," he said with a generosity that did him small service.