"Notwithstanding the unavoidable disillusion which your discovery prepared for you?" asked Ella, somewhat sharply.
Captain Almbach looked at her unabashed for a few seconds.
"You make me suffer greatly for the imprudent confession, Ella. Be it so! I must bear it. Only one question before I go, or one petition rather. May I come again?"
She hesitated with her reply; he came a step nearer.
"May I come again? Ella, what have I done to you that you would banish me also from your threshold?"
There lay a reproach in the words, which did not fail to make an impression upon her.
"I do not do so either," replied she, gently. "If you would seek me again, our door shall not be closed to you."
With quick movement, Hugo caught her hand, and carried it to his lips, but those lips rested on it unusually long, much longer than is customary in kissing a hand, and Ella appeared to think so, as she drew it somewhat hastily away. Equally hastily Captain Almbach drew himself up; the slight red tint which had before lain on his forehead was there again, and he, who was at other times never at a loss for a civility or suitable reply, said now merely monosyllabically--
"Thank you. Until we meet again, then!"
"Until we meet again!" replied Ella, with a confusion that contrasted strangely with the calm and decision which she had shown throughout the whole interview. It almost seemed as if she repented the permission just given, and which still she could not withdraw.