style="font-size:15px;"> "She is my cousin, mademoiselle."
"What does that matter? I know much more than you do, though I have only seen her two days. I know that—well, I am afraid of her!"
"Afraid of her? Did you come out—may I ask—determined to talk nonsense?"
"I came out—never mind! I am afraid of her. She hates me. I think"—he felt a shiver in the air—will do me harm if she can."
"No one shall do you harm," said Ashe, his tone changing, "if you will only trust yourself—"
She laughed merrily.
"To you? Oh! you'd soon throw it up."
"Try me!" he said, approaching her. "Lady Kitty, I have something to say to you."
Suddenly she shrank away from him. He could not see her face, and had nothing to guide him.
"I haven't yet known you three weeks," he said, over-mastered by something passionate and profound. "I don't know what you will say—whether you can put up with me. But I know my own mind—I shall not change. I—I love you. I ask you to marry me."
A silence. The night seemed to have grown darker. Then a small hand seized his, and two soft lips pressed themselves upon it. He tried to capture her, but she evaded him.
"You—you really and actually—want to marry me?"
"I do, Kitty, with all my heart."
"You remember about my mother—about Alice?"
"I remember everything. We would face it together."
"And—you know what I told you about my bad temper?"
"Some nonsense, wasn't it? But I should be bored by the domestic dove. I want the hawk, Kitty, with its quick wings and its daring bright eyes."
She broke from him with a cry.
"You must listen. I have—a wicked, odious, ungovernable temper. I should make you miserable."
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