“Oh, you must not say this,” Stella protested feebly.

“Yes, I must, and you will listen to me, little star.”

He drew nearer to her, and the amazing power of propinquity began to assert itself.  She felt as if the force to resist him were leaving her, she was trembling all over with delicious thrills.

“I made up my mind almost immediately I saw you, sweet child,” he went on, “that you were what I have been waiting for all my life.  You are good and true—­and balanced—­or you will be that when I have made your love education.  Stella, look at me with those soft eyes, and tell me that I mean something to you already, and that the worthy Mr. Medlicott does not exist any more.”

“I—­I—­but I have only known you for two days,” Stella answered confusedly:  she was so full of emotion that she dared not trust herself further.

“Does time count, then, so much with conventional people?” he demanded.  “For me it has no significance in relation to feeling.  If you would only look at me instead of down at those small hands, then you would not be able to tell me these foolish things!”

This was so true that Stella could not deny it, her breath came rather fast; it was the supreme moment her life had yet known.

“You are frightened because the training of your education still holds you and not nature.  Your acquired opinion tells you you are engaged to another man, and ought not to listen to me.”

“Of course I ought not to,” she murmured.

“Of course you ought—­how else can you come to any conclusion if you do not hear my arguments—­sweet, foolish one!”

She did look at him now with two startled eyes.

“Listen attentively, darling pupil, and sweet love,” he said.  He was leaning with one arm on the back of the bench supporting his head on his hand, turned quite toward her, who sat with clasped nervous fingers clutching her fan.  His other hand lay idly on his knee, his whole attitude was very still.  The soft lights were just enough for him to see distinctly her small face and shining hair; his own face was in shadow, but she could feel the magnetism of his eyes penetrating through her very being.

“You were coerced by those in charge of you,” he went on in a level voice of argument, which yet broke into notes of tenderness, “you were influenced into becoming engaged to this man who is ridiculously unsuited to you.  You, so full of life and boundless joy!  You, who will learn all of love’s meaning presently, and what it makes of existence, and what God meant by giving it to us mortals.  You are intended by nature to be a complete woman if you did but know it—­but such a life, tied to that half fish man, would atrophy all that is finest in your character.  You would grow really into what they are trying to make you appear—­after years of hopelessness and suffering.  Do you not feel all this, little star, tell me?”

“Yes,” Stella answered, “it is true—­I have seemed to feel the cords and the shackles pulling at me often, but never that they were unbearable until I—­spoke with you—­and you put new thoughts into my head.”