He lifted her gently up, and sat her on his knee.

"Poor little thing!" he said.

She turned her face to his shoulder, and buried it against his neck; he
wound his strong arm about her, and held her close to him. When she had
sat for a long while, he drew with his hand the face down, and held it
against his arm. He kissed it, and then put it back in its old resting-
place.

"Don't you want to talk to me?"

"No."

"Have you forgotten the night in the avenue?"

He could feel that she shook her head.

"Do you want to be quiet now?"

"Yes."

They sat quite still, excepting that only sometimes he raised her fingers
softly to his mouth.

Doss, who had been asleep in the corner, waking suddenly, planted himself
before them, his wiry legs moving nervously, his yellow eyes filled with
anxiety. He was not at all sure that she was not being retained in her
present position against her will, and was not a little relieved when she