charge in the present instance? A kiss, perhaps, or two?"

Now, Max had, indeed, indulged the hope that she would bestow upon him
this small mark of gratitude. It came upon him with a shock of surprise
that a girl who had been so bold as to summon him should make so much
fuss about the reward he had certainly earned. He had expected to get it
with a laugh and a blush, as a matter of course. For his modest
suggestion to be taken so seriously was a disconcerting occurrence. He
drew himself up a little.

"I don't pretend I should have been generous enough to refuse such a
payment if you had shown the slightest willingness to make it," said he.
"But as it's the sort of coin that has no value unless given
voluntarily, we will consider the debt settled without it."

He made a pretense of leaving her at this point, without the slightest
intention of persisting in it. This curious conference had all the zest
of a most novel kind of flirtation, which was none the less piquant for
the girl's haughty airs.

There are feminine eyes which allure as much while they seem to repel as
they do when they consciously attract; and the light-blue ones which
shone in the white face of this East End enchantress were of the number.

Max opened the door and slowly stepped into the outhouse. At the moment
of glancing back--an inevitable thing--he saw that she looked sorry,
dismayed. He took his gloves out of his pocket and began to draw them
on, to fill up the time. By the time the second finger of the first
glove was in its place, for he was deliberate, the girl had come into
the outhouse, passed him, and was drawing water from the tap into her