Again she shook her head, and gently shaped "No!" with her lips. It was too unemotionally decisive to warrant of any further urging, and he became silent, with something of pain in his face that her eye caught.
"I'm sorry, Alden—I've never liked you better—but I'd rather you didn't ask."
"You wouldn't have come before, would you, Nell—three months ago?" And she answered "No" again, very quickly.
"I must play my little game out in my own way," she continued. "I must stay beside some one—beside people—who still have heart for trying."
"Someone, Nell?"
She caught her lip.
"Everyone who has fresh hope and stubbornness in defeat."
"If you'd let me, Nell—" There was the note of real pleading in his tone.
"No, Alden."
"Friends, though?" he queried, seeming at last convinced.