He looked at her and she wavered slightly under his black eyes. The
fight was becoming a little too desperate even for her steady nerves.
"You would not like me to act dishonestly, would you?" he asked.
"No," she involuntarily replied, regretting the word the moment she had
uttered it. He gave her one of his rare sweet smiles, and, rising,
before she realized his intent, he had kissed her hands and was gone.
She asked herself why she had been so foolish; and yet, somehow, sitting
there alone in the firelight, she felt glad for once that she had risen
above intrigue. Then she sighed and smiled, and began to plot anew.
Teerswell dropped in later and brought his friend, Stillings. They found
their hostess gay and entertaining.
Miss Wynn gathered books about her, and in the days of April and May she
and Alwyn read up on education. He marvelled at the subtlety of her
mind, and she at the relentlessness of his. They were very near each
other during these days, and yet there was ever something between them:
a vision to him of dark and pleading eyes that he constantly saw beside
her cool, keen glance. And he to her was always two men: one man above
men, whom she could respect but would not marry, and one man like all
men, whom she would marry but could not respect. His devotion to an
ideal which she thought so utterly unpractical, aroused keen curiosity
and admiration.
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