"Did he say anything to you then?"
"No. He was very funny,—as he often is. Don't you know his way? I remember every word he said to me. He came up without any introduction and ordered me to dance with him."
"And you did?"
"Oh yes. Whatever he told me I should have done. Then he scolded me because I did not stand up quick enough. And he invented some story about a woman who was engaged to him and would not marry him because he had red hair and his name was Jonathan. I knew it was all a joke, and yet I hated the woman."
"That must have been love at first sight."
"I think it was. From that day to this I have always been thinking about him."
"And yet you refused him twice over?"
"Yes."
"At ever so long an interval?" Ayala bobbed her head at her companion. "And why?"
"Ah;—that I can't tell. I shall try to tell him some day, but I know that I never shall. It was because—. But, Lady Albury, I cannot tell it. Did you ever picture anything to yourself in a waking dream?"