silence.

"No; I'm thinking."

"Please think aloud."

"I was thinking--suppose I did."

There was so much of weighty consideration in her accents that the
other fear again beset him.

"Did what? Not come down from the rock?" "Be calm. I shouldn't
want to face you any more than you want to face me, if I decided
to do it."

"Go on," he encouraged. "It sounds most promising."

"More than that. It's fairly thrilling. It's the awful secret of
my life that I'm considering laying bare to you, just like a dime
novel. Are you discreet?"

"As the eternal rocks. Prescribe any form of oath and I'll take
it."

"I'm feeling just irresponsible enough to venture. Now, if I knew
you, of course I couldn't. But as I shall never set eyes on you
again--I never shall, shall I?"

"Not unless you creep up on me unawares."