"In the first place, I did not ask him to give you any message; and secondly, I never tell lies.

But what's the chief point, I wanted to stay, and I stayed," he said, frowning.

" Anna, what is it for, why will you?" he said after a moment's silence, bending over towards her, and he opened his hand, hoping she would lay hers in it.

She was glad of this appeal for tenderness.

But some strange force of evil would not let her give herself up to her feelings, as though the rules of warfare would not permit her to surrender.