so in accord with hers that she responded in somewhat the same spirit,
and said, half laughingly and half tearfully, "Well, if you will, you
will, but I can offer no encouragement."

And yet his downright earnestness had agitated her deeply, disturbing
her maiden serenity, and awaking for the first time the woman within
her heart. Hitherto her girlhood's fancies had been like summer
zephyrs, disturbing but briefly the still, clear waters of her soul;
but now she became an enigma to herself as she slowly grew conscious
of her own heart and the law of her woman's nature to love and give
herself to another. But she had too much of the doughty old major's
fire and spirit, and was too fond of her freedom, to surrender easily.
Both Graham and Mrs. Mayburn were right in their estimate--she would
never yield her heart unless compelled to by influences unexpected, at
first unwelcomed, but in the end overmastering.

The first and chief effect of Hilland's impetuous wooing was, as we
have seen, to destroy her sense of maidenly security, and to bring her
face to face with her destiny. Then his openly avowed siege speedily
compelled her to withdraw her thoughts from man in the abstract to
himself. She could not brush him aside by a quiet negative, as she had
already done in the case of several others. Clinging to her old life,
however, and fearing to embark on this unknown sea of new experiences,
she hesitated, and would not commit herself until the force that
impelled was greater than that which restrained. He at last had the
tact to understand her and to recognize that he had spoken to a girl,
indeed almost a child, and that he must wait for the woman to develop.
Hopeful, almost confident, for success and prosperity had seemingly
made a league with him in all things, he was content to wait. The
major had sanctioned his addresses from the first, and he sought to