"All the time," she sobbed.
"What a brute I was! How I must have hurt you!"
"You couldn't help it. You didn't mean to hurt me."
"No, of course not, but, none the less I did it. I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make up for it, dear, if you'll let me."
It flashed upon Rosemary that this was not at all like the impassioned love-making to which she had been an unwilling witness, but, none the less, it was sweet, and it was her very own. He wanted her, and merely to be wanted, anywhere, gives a certain amount of satisfaction.
"Kiss me, dear," Rosemary put up her trembling lips, answering to him with every fibre of body and soul.
"Don't cry, dear girl, please don't! I want to make you happy."
Rosemary released herself, wiped her eyes upon a coarse handkerchief, then asked the inevitable question: "Will she care?"
"No, she'll be glad. Mother will too."
A Promise
"Grandmother won't," she laughed, hysterically, "nor Aunt Matilda."
"Never mind them. You've considered them all your life, now it's your turn."
"It doesn't seem that I deserve it," whispered Rosemary, with touching humility. "I've never been happy, except for a little while this Spring, and now----."
"And now," he said, taking her into his arms again, "you're going to be happy all the rest of your life, if I can make you so. If I don't you'll tell me, won't you?"
"I can't promise," she murmured, shyly, to his coat sleeve. "I must go now, it's getting late."
"Not until you've told me when you'll marry me. To-morrow?"
"Oh, no!" cried Rosemary. "Not to-morrow."
"Why not?"
"It's--it's too soon."
"In a week, then?"
"I--I don't know. I'll see."
"Make it very soon, my dear, will you?"
"Yes--just as soon as I can."
"Is that a promise?"
"Yes--a promise."
"Then kiss me."
Half Afraid
The white fire burned in Rosemary's blood; her heart beat hard with rapturous pain. Upon the desert wastes that stretched endlessly before her, Spring had come with the old, immortal beauty, and more than mortal joy. Half afraid of her own ecstasy, she broke away from him and ran home.