"No, no."
"No?"
"Allow me to go, now. My mind is too full of the fate of Johanna even to permit me to reject in the language taught—"
"Reject?"
"Yes," she said, "reject. I wish you all the happiness this world can afford to you, Colonel Jeffery."
"Then you will be mine?"
"No, no, no. Farewell."
She rose, and this time the colonel did not attempt to detain her. He stepped back a pace or two, and bowed, and then rose and walked a pace or two away. Then she turned, and holding out her hand, she cried—
"We may—may be friends."
The colonel took the little hand in silence, but the expression of his face was one of deep chagrin.