"Preposterous! Afraid of me!" Now he was smiling.
"Perhaps—" As she hesitated, she looked up at him in an appealing manner.
"Perhaps what?"
"Perhaps it is because you have given me a glimpse of your own heart, and have—"
"Have what?"
"—asked me to reveal mine to you. I can't."
"In other words, you do not love me?"
"I honor you as I do several people I know. Nothing more."
There was a long pause. Kenneth was the first to speak.
"Your friendship! Am I to be deprived of that, too?"