'
He expressed by a look that to kiss a hand through a glove, and
that a riding-glove, was not a great treat under the
circumstances.
'There, then; I'll take my glove off. Isn't it a pretty white
hand? Ah, you don't want to kiss it, and you shall not now!'
'If I do not, may I never kiss again, you severe Elfride! You know
I think more of you than I can tell; that you are my queen. I
would die for you, Elfride!'
A rapid red again filled her cheeks, and she looked at him
meditatively. What a proud moment it was for Elfride then! She
was ruling a heart with absolute despotism for the first time in
her life.
Stephen stealthily pounced upon her hand.
'No; I won't, I won't!' she said intractably; 'and you shouldn't
take me by surprise.'
There ensued a mild form of tussle for absolute possession of the
much-coveted hand, in which the boisterousness of boy and girl was
far more prominent than the dignity of man and woman. Then Pansy
became restless. Elfride recovered her position and remembered
herself.
'You make me behave in not a nice way at all!' she exclaimed, in a
tone neither of pleasure nor anger, but partaking of both. 'I
ought not to have allowed such a romp! We are too old now for that
sort of thing.'
'I hope you don't think me too--too much of a creeping-round sort
of man,' said he in a penitent tone, conscious that he too had
lost a little dignity by the proceeding.
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