“What is it that you wish?” she asked.

“I want you to care for me,” the other said—­“to love me just a little, Helen; will you?”

“I—­I think so,” was the reply, in a scarcely audible voice.

And Mr. Harrison pressed her hand in his and bent forward eagerly.  “Then I may kiss you, dear?” he asked; “you will not mind?”

And Helen bowed her head and answered, “No.”  In this same instant, as she sank forward the man clasped her in his arms; he pressed her upon his bosom, and covered her cheeks and forehead with his passionate, burning kisses.  Helen, crushed and helpless in his grasp, felt a revulsion of feeling so sudden and so overwhelming that it was an agony to her, and she almost screamed aloud.  She was choking and shuddering, and her cheeks were on fire, while in the meantime Mr. Harrison, almost beside himself with passion, pressed her tighter to him and poured out his protestations of devotion.  Helen bore it until she was almost mad with the emotion that had rushed over her, and then she made a wild effort to tear herself free.  Her hair was disordered, and her face red, and her whole being throbbing with shame, but he still held her in his tight embrace.

“You are not angry, Helen dear?” he asked.

“No,” the girl gasped

“You told me that I might kiss you,” he said; and she was so choking with her emotion that she could not answer a word, she could only shudder and submit to his will.  And Mr. Harrison, supposing that her emotions were very different from what they were, rested her head upon his shoulder, smoothing back her tangled hair and whispering into her ear how beautiful she was beyond any dream of his, and how the present moment was the happiest of his lifetime.

“I thought it would never come, dear,” he said, kissing her forehead again, “you were so very cold.”  Helen had not yet ceased fighting the fearful battle in her own heart, and so as he looked into her eyes, she gazed up at him and forced another ghastly smile to her lips:  they looked so very beautiful that Mr. Harrison kissed them again and again, and he would probably have been content to kiss them many times more, and to forget everything else in the bliss, had Helen been willing.

But she felt just then that if the strain continued longer she would go mad; with a laugh that was half hysterical, she tore herself loose by main force, and sprang up, reminding the other that he had a train to catch.  Mr. Harrison demurred, but the girl would hear no more, and she took him by the hand and led him to the door, still laughing, and very much flushed and excited, so that he thought she was happier than ever.  It would have startled him could he have seen her as he went to call for the horses,—­how she staggered and clung to a pillar for support, as white as the marble she leaned against.