I was afraid of Maureen's eyes.
"I'll toss the cup for you," she said when I had drunk my tea. "There's
a beautiful fortune in it for you, Miss Bawn. I see a wedding-coach and
four horses----"
"Are there plumes on the coach, Maureen?" I asked.
"I'm surprised at you, Miss Bawn." Maureen looked startled and angry.
"Why should there be plumes on the wedding-coach that'll bring yourself
and the fine husband home? I won't be asking who _he'll_ be. And
by-and-by there'll be babies in the nurseries again, and old Maureen'll
be as young as ever she was."
The afternoon of that day I was called down to Richard Dawson, and when
I went to the drawing-room I found him alone.
He took me in his arms and kissed me, and when I shivered under his kiss
it only seemed to make him more ardent. It was a terrible thing to
accept his kisses feeling that cold repulsion; and my whole heart and
soul another man's. If he had been less ardent it might have been more
tolerable. As it was I let him have his will of kissing me till he
suddenly put me away from him.
"You do not return my kisses," he said. "Are you afraid of me, Bawn?"
"I am not used to lovers," I said, turning away my head.
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