"'_Do not--do not_ pass! Stay with me awhile. Let us exchange a few quiet words. It is three days since I spoke to you alone. Such changes are cruel.'
"'I have no wish to be cruel,' she responded, softly enough. Indeed there was softness in her whole deportment--in her face, in her voice; but there was also reserve, and an air fleeting, evanishing, intangible.

"'Do not pass! Stay with me awhile. It is three days since I spoke to you alone. Such changes are cruel.'
"'I have no wish to be cruel,' she responded, softly enough; but there was also reserve in her manner.
