"You did not want to see me again."
Violet turned her face towards him, and leaned forward a little.
"I don't say that," she said softly. "But I thought it would be better that we two should not meet again, if meeting could be avoided. I saw that you cared—I may say that, mayn't I?" and for a second she laid her hand gently upon his sleeve. "I saw that you cared too much. It seemed to me best that it should end altogether."
Shere Ali lifted his head, and turned quickly towards her.
"Why should it end at all?" he cried. His eyes kindled and sought hers.
"Violet, why should it end at all?"
Violet Oliver drew back. She cast a glance to the courtyard. Only a few paces away the stream of people passed up and down.
"It must end," she answered. "You know that as well as I."
"I don't know it. I won't know it," he replied. He reached out his hand towards hers, but she was too quick for him. He bent nearer to her.
"Violet," he whispered, "marry me!"
Violet Oliver glanced again to the courtyard. But it was no longer to assure herself that friends of her own race were comfortably near at hand. Now she was anxious that they should not be near enough to listen and overhear.