'Good-bye, Mr. Cousin Henry, and I hope you'll have an exceedingly
happy time in the train and soon come back and visit us again.'
'Thank you,' he said, 'I'm sure I shall.' He gave her a bit of solid
starlight as he said it, then suddenly leaned forward and kissed her
on the cheek. Making a violent movement like an experienced boxer who
dodges an upper cut, Jinny turned and fled precipitately from the
room, forgetting her parents altogether. That kiss, she felt, consumed
her childhood in a flash of fiery flame. In bed she decided that she
must lengthen her skirts the very next day, and put her hair up too.
She must do something that should give her protection and yet freedom.
For a long time she did not sleep. She lay thinking it over. She felt
supremely happy--wild, excited, naughty. 'A man has kissed me; it was
a man; it was Mr. Rogers, Daddy's cousin.... He's not _my_ cousin
exactly, but just "a man."' And she fell asleep, wondering how she
ought to begin her letter to him when she wrote, but, more perplexing
still, how she ought to--end it! That little backward brain sought the
solution of the problem all night long in dreams. She felt a criminal,
a dare-devil caught in the act, awaiting execution. Light had been
flashed cruelly upon her dark, careful secret--the greatest and finest
secret in the world.
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