"That hasn't mattered to you all along. Why drag it in now? Night
after night you've danced with me; I've been at your beck and call;
you used me to rescue you from Gray that time. What are you? What
are you made of? Unsophisticated! You!" He wasn't angry. He was
fumbling at reasons in order to try and get at her point of view.
"You know well enough that a man doesn't put himself out to that
extent for nothing. What becomes of give and take? Do you conceive
that you are going to sail through life taking everything and giving
nothing?"

Martin had asked her this, and Alice, and now here was Gilbert
Palgrave putting it to her as though it were an indictment! "But I'm
a kid," she cried out. "What do you all mean? Can't I be allowed to
have any fun without paying for it? I'm only just out of the shell.
I've only been living for a few weeks. Can't you see that I'm a kid?
I have the right to take all I can get for nothing,--the right of
youth. What do you mean--all of you?"

She came out from behind the piano and stood in front of him, as
erect as a silver birch, and as slim and young. There was a great
indignation all about her.

His eager hands went out, and fell. He was not a brute. It would be
cowardly to touch this amazing child. She was armed with
fearlessness and virginity--and he had mistaken these things for
callousness.

"I don't know what to say," he said. "You stagger me. How long are
you going to hide behind this youthfulness? When are you going to be
old enough to be honest? Men have patience only up to a point. At