"Ah, I frightened you that day in the wood, my bird," he said, "and I
suffer for it now. What a brute I was! But you can make me different if
you will, Bawn. If you will but love me, my beauty, you can do what you
will with me--make a decent fellow of me. I am not such a bad fellow at
heart. Come, give me a kiss of your own free will. You would not when I
asked you before, but you will now because I am your affianced husband.
Come, kiss me, Bawn."
I kissed him, shrinking all the time, and with a dreary wonder as to
whether it was always going to be like this, and if so, how I was to
endure it.
"Your kiss is as cold as a frog," he said. "But never mind, I wouldn't
give a fig for a woman who was too easily won. The time will come when
you will beg me for kisses. Till then, why, I shall do the love-making
myself."
But presently, seeing I could not endure it, he let me go. It never
seemed to occur to him that my aversion could be for him. He took my
shrinking as maiden modesty, and vowed that he delighted in it, that I
should have been far less desirable if I had not been so coy, and that
he would be happier breaking down my barriers than if there had been
none to break.
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