"What is it about the affair that you can not understand?"
"That she should refuse you. I thought she would be sure to accept."
"Ah!" said Lieutenant De Vere, dryly, and then he took several moody puffs at his cigar.
"Yes, I honestly thought so. Did she give you any reason for refusing you?"
"Two reasons," De Vere replied, laconically.
"One ought to have been enough," said his friend.
"Yes, it ought to have been, I know," said De Vere, reddening warmly. "But, you see, I did not want to take no for an answer, so when she said she couldn't marry me because she didn't love me I wanted her to take time. You see, I thought she might learn to love me. So, then, to escape my importunities, she had to put in another reason."
"And that?" asked Lancaster.
"I am not sure that I ought to tell. I think she told it me as a secret," he answered, thoughtfully.
And then when he saw Lancaster's grave, disappointed face, he said, suddenly: