"Now, I'd as lief kiss a man I had loved as any other." "Or slap his face ?" "If I'd never cared to kiss, I'd never care for the other either.

You rise ?" "Why, yes.

I have my commission, haven't I ?" "I give you this one also, and yet you keep it ?" "Is that slight not yet forgiven ?" "All is forgiven and all is forgotten--nearly, Simon." At this instant--and since man is human, woman persistent, and courtesy imperative, I did not quarrel with the interruption--a sound came from the room above, strange in a house where Nell lived (if she will pardon so much candour), but oddly familiar to me.

I held up my hand and listened.

Nell's rippling laugh broke in.
"Plague on him!" she cried.