"Why do you sigh like that?"
"I so much wish you wouldn't."
"Wouldn't what?"
"Be so ridiculous."
"Is that all you have to say to me?"
"That—and good-night."
"I did not think you could be so cruel."
"I am not cruel," Deleah said; and then, quite unexpected by her, a sob rose in her throat, and it was all that she could do to keep the tears of self-pity back. "I am not cruel, but you so torment me. I want to be kind to you, but I do not want to hear about all this—which sounds so ridiculous to me. You are older than I am—you should know better. You should know how silly it is to talk to a girl like me such nonsense. And I want to go to bed, Mr. Gibbon. Will you please stand away and let me go to bed?"
He put his hand on the door-knob as if to open it for her, but held it there. "This isn't the end," he said.
"Oh, no!" she sighed with dreary prescience.