As he spoke the words in a grave voice, she put her hand in his, removed it, and went away by the riverside.

“Now, could Mortimer believe this?” murmured Eugene, still remaining, after a while, where she had left him. “Can I even believe it myself?”

He referred to the circumstance that there were tears upon his hand, as he stood covering his eyes. “A most ridiculous position this, to be found out in!” was his next thought. And his next struck its root in a little rising resentment against the cause of the tears.

“Yet I have gained a wonderful power over her, too, let her be as much in earnest as she will!”

The reflection brought back the yielding of her face and form as she had drooped under his gaze. Contemplating the reproduction, he seemed to see, for the second time, in the appeal and in the confession of weakness, a little fear.