After they had walked through the forest for a while in silence, she halted and withdrew her arm.
"You know," she said, "we are not nearly well enough acquainted for you to be moody and unamiable."
"I did not mean to be either," he said. "What is it that has come between us, Karen?"
"Why, nothing I hope," she said fervently.
"I hope so, too.... You have been different since--" He hesitated, and she turned her head carelessly and looked back at the little brook they had crossed. When her blush had cooled she resumed her leisurely walk and glanced up at him inquiringly:
"Since _when_ have you thought me different?"
"Please, Kervyn! Not _we_. I think it was you who performed that very childish rite."
"You didn't take it seriously!" she exclaimed with an enchanting laugh. "Did you really? I'm so dreadfully sorry!"
The dark flush on his face frightened her. It was her first campaign and she was easily alarmed. But she was wise enough to say nothing.
"Yes," he said with an effort, "I did take it very seriously. And I took you seriously, too. I don't understand your new attitude toward me--toward life itself. Until today I had never seen any lightness in you, any mockery----"
"Lightness? You saw plenty in me. I was not very difficult, was I?--on the train? Not very reticent about my views concerning friendship and my fears concerning--love. Why should you be surprised at the frivolity of such a girl? It has taken so many years for me to learn to laugh. Nineteen, I think. Won't you let me laugh a little, now that I know how?"
"Have I any influence at all with you?" he asked. "I thought I had."
"I thought so, too," she mused, innocently.
"Why, nothing, Kervyn!" opening her eyes.
"Does any of my influence with you remain?"
"Yes, but I don't wish to weep because I care for you."
"Learn? I don't know," she mused aloud, apparently much interested in the novelty of the suggestion. "I learn some things easily; mathematics I never could learn. _Why_ are you scowling, Kervyn?"
"Could you ever love me?" he persisted, doggedly.
"I don't know. Do you desire to pay your court to me?"
"You appear to be uncertain. It seems to me that a man ought to know whether or not he desires to pay his addresses to a girl."