— she classed it herself as firmness — rose in revolt. She shook her head angrily, pulled herself together, and went on:

‘That may be! though it’s not what I call myself, or what I am usually called, so far as I know. At any rate my convictions are honest, and I am sure you will respect them as such, even if you do not share them.’ She did not see the ready response in his face which she expected, and so hurried on:

‘It has always seemed to me that a — when a woman has to speak to a man she should do so as frankly as she would like him to speak to her, and as freely. Leonard, I — I,’ as she halted, a sudden idea, winged with possibilities of rescuing procrastination came to her. She went on more easily: