“Because he will not have me.”

“He, who?” I queried.

“The man I was engaged to when I was a baby.”

“Upon my word!” I cried with indignation.

“Now, Thunderstorm, you need not go ahead and blame him. His reasons are excellent, as his face is kind and his figure straight—like a cypress tree.”

“You have seen him then?”

“Yes, he has been in Constantinople for the past two years, and I have seen him several times through the lattices of my window.”

“And he refuses to marry you?”

“He does.”

“On the ground——”