"My mind is made up."
"What's that matter?"
"A great deal! The whole affair is settled definitely." Here she
turned on me in such flaming anger that I fell back a step in utter
amazement, and Jessamy, murmuring something about "seeing if supper
was ready" quickened his stride and left us together.
"Why did ye do it?" she panted. "Why did ye let 'em think 't was you
stole that looking-glass?"
"Because it was my whim!"
"Oh, I know--I know!" she cried, positively gnashing her teeth at me.
"Then why trouble to ask?"
"You thought 'twas me!" she cried. "You dared to think I'd stolen it.
You did--you did! Ah, you're afraid to own it!"
"And if I did," cried I, angered at last, "hadn't I reason enough,
remembering your--your propensities--"
"What d'ye mean? What's propensities?"
"Well, your predilections--"
"Ah, talk plain!"
"Well, then, remembering those three guineas and the duck you filched,
I naturally supposed--"
Uttering a sobbing cry she leapt, striking at me wildly, but ducking
in under the blow, I caught her in my arms. For a moment she struggled
fiercely, then her writhing body grew soft and yielding in my clasp,
and she burst into a passion of tears.
Now as she drooped thus in my embrace, her slender form shaken by
sobs, I leant nearer and, moved by a sudden impulse, kissed her hair,
her eyes, her parted lips, lips that quivered under mine for a
breathless moment; then, loosing her, I stepped back to see her
staring at me through her tears with a look of speechless amaze.
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