"Don't touch me!" she cried. "The only promise you have had from me,
Richard, is the one my mother has fairly forced from me. I am trying
honestly to like you. I will please my mother and you if I can."

"That's a devil of a thing to say to a man who loves you as I do," he
declared, with anger.

"That is all I can say just now. But if you use me again as you would
pull and haul a girl of the streets, I'll despise you. I give you
warning."

"What sort of books have you been reading, Kate?" he asked,
sarcastically. "Where did you get your idea of what love-making is?
They don't sing serenades under windows these days. They don't kiss
finger-tips and write mush poems. I am going to tell you a few things
you ought to know, as a girl engaged to be married."

Farr stood close by them and in plain sight, but their absorption in
their struggle had left them attention only for each other. He knew
that if he started away while they were talking his presence would be
promptly noted and undoubtedly misjudged.

He set his finger between the leaves of his book and took his hat in his
hand.

"Your pardon!" he pleaded. "I stumbled here quite by accident. Please
suspend conversation on private matters until I can walk out of
earshot."