Eugenia shook her head fretfully like a child.
"But it isn't a question of my caring. I told you that there were a thousand other things that stood between us, Henri."
Then she drew her hand away and laid it lightly upon the young man's head.
"This house has many memories for me. Perhaps when I am an old woman you will let me come back here and live a part of each year. May I buy the house from your mother? Ask her as a favor to me?"
Eugenia was trying her best to return to her old half maternal treatment of the young officer. This had been the attitude which she had used in the months of his illness in the little "Farmhouse with the Blue Front Door."
But this time their positions were reversed.
"We will talk of that another time," he returned. "Now you must be fair with me. I will not accept such an answer as you gave me before. I must be told the truth."
Captain Castaigne had gotten up and stood looking down upon Eugenia.
"I return to my regiment tomorrow. You must tell me today."