'But—but I do not return the sentiment—I cannot love you as you would wish.'
'Not even in the end, Hester?'
'What end?'
'Any time I may give you and hopefully wait for?'
She shook her head and cast down her white eyelids.
'And yet no one else seeks your love?' said he a little reproachfully.
'No one else.'
'Can I never make you care for me?' he urged in a kind of dull desperation.
'Pardon me—but I do not think so; my regard, my friendship and gratitude will ever be yours; but please—please,' she added almost piteously, 'do not let us recur to this matter again.'
'You feel the impossibility——'