Benedicta gave a little cry and threw herself against the Duke of Kingswood.

"I am so frightened I may... disappoint you."

He pulled her closer to him.

"Do you think I want you to know anything but what I shall teach you?" he asked. "I adore your ignorance, your purity." He spoke with a fervor she had never heard be-fore. "I was the first man who had ever kissed you. I shall also be the only man, and the last."

Benedicta gazed at him in awe.

"How could there be anyone else but you?" she asked wonderingly.

Very tenderly the Duke looked down into her eyes.

"You are mine," he said.

He kissed her until he could feel her soft and pliant against him, until his lips had awakened in her the first flickering flames of desire....