" Happy,
dazzled, and embarrassed, he was beginning to stammer the truthful
protestation that rose to his lips, but she stopped him: "No, don't
protest! say nothing! Let _me_ love _you_--that is all. It is enough."
He would have caught her in his arms again, but she drew back. "We are
near the road," she said quietly. "Come! you promised to show me where
you camped. Let us make the most of our holiday. In an hour I must
leave the woods."
"But I shall accompany you, dearest."
"No, I must go as I came--alone."
"But Nellie"--
"I tell you no," she said, with an almost harsh practical decision,
incompatible with her previous abandonment. "We might be seen
together."
"Well, suppose we are; we must be seen together eventually," he
remonstrated.
The young girl made an involuntary gesture of impatient negation, but
checked herself. "Don't let us talk of that now. Come, while I am here
under your own roof"--she pointed to the high interlaced boughs above
them--"you must be hospitable. Show me your home; tell me, isn't it a
little gloomy sometimes?"
"It never has been; I never thought it _would_ be until the moment you
leave it to-day.
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