In another moment he had seized them, kissed them, and, as he drew her
closer to his embrace, felt them tighten around his neck. "But what name
do you wish to call me?" he asked, looking down into her eyes.

Miss Nellie murmured something confidentially to the third button of his
hunting shirt. "But that," he replied, with a smile, "THAT wouldn't be
any more practical, and you wouldn't want others to call me dar--" Her
fingers loosened around his neck, she drew her head back, and a singular
expression passed over her face, which to any calmer observer than
a lover would have seemed, however, to indicate more curiosity than
jealousy.

"Who else DOES call you so?" she added earnestly. "How many, for
instance?"

Low's reply was addressed not to her ear, but her lips. She did not
avoid it, but added, "And do you kiss them all like that?" Taking him by
the shoulders, she held him a little way from her, and gazed at him from
head to foot. Then drawing him again to her embrace, she said, "I don't
care, at least no woman has kissed you like that." Happy, dazzled, and
embarrassed, he was beginning to stammer the truthful protestation that
rose to his lips, but she stopped him: "No, don't protest! say nothing!
Let ME love YOU--that is all. It is enough." He would have caught her
in his arms again, but she drew back. "We are near the road," she said
quietly. "Come! You promised to show me where you camped. Let US make
the most of our holiday. In an hour I must leave the woods."

"But I shall accompany you, dearest."

"No, I must go as I came--alone."