enfant;9 she remarked with a threatening glance at
Goundran.
Elise was darning a black cotton glove, but she
laid it aside as Goundran approached her. And now
there she sat with her tremulous hands clasped tightly
in order to still their trembling; and now there she
sat with her honest blue eyes turned anxiously in
Goundran's direction.
He said, diving head foremost into the subject lest
by waiting his small stock of courage should dwindle,
he said: 'There is something we two must discuss;
but first I will ask a most serious question. Have I
ever wronged you, my little Elise?*
'No. How could you possibly wrong me?* she asked
him.
There are ways. . . .' he hesitated and flushed.
Did she know? Had she heard of the scandalous
gossip? There are ways ... or so it would seem. . . .'
he stammered, for her innocence made him feel
ashamed when he thought of Eusebe and the men
from the tartanes.
*I know of nothing in you that is wrong — that could
ever be wrong,' said the youthful Elise; and the blue
of her eyes became so profound that it suddenly made
Goundran think of the ocean. cNo, nothing in you
could be wrong;5 she repeated.
Then he noticed the shabby black cotton glove
with a very big hole in the tip of one finger, and some-
how that glove brought a lump to his throat, because
as it lay there it looked so humble: 'Surely your birth-
day is to-morrow, Elise? I will buy you a pair of kid
gloves,' he promised. He had come there to warn her
of what was afoot, very tactfully, very discreetly to
warn her, but instead he found himself holding her
hand: eOh, the poor little hand, so cold, so cold . . *
and so thin, Elise. Oh, the poor little hand!9 Which
was not at all what he had meant to say, since it
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