“Yes, I had to send Ido after you. I don’t suppose you would ever have let me see you again if I had not.”

She shrugged her shoulders imperceptibly. “Me you don’ wish marrying with. You send me ‘way. What I do?”

“We could be capital friends, even if we didn’t care to marry, couldn’t we?”

“Frien’? I don’ wan’ frien’,” she returned, coldly.

“But I’d like to have you for my friend, all the same, though I’m afraid it’s not possible. Ido”—he hesitated—“Ido says you’re going to be married, you know.”

She inclined her head.

“You’re not married yet, are you?” he asked in alarm, forgetting that he had put this same question to the nakoda the day before.

“Nod yit.”

“Do you—um—like him?”

“Which one, my lord?” She looked up at him innocently.