“Then I should be sorry that I had only one life to give him.”
X
“Three times, he told my father, he had made offer of marriage for you, and each time it was refused.”
Soichi looked down upon her where she sat by the big rock, and his black eyes shone with a great tenderness. She did not look up, but gazed away toward the sea and made no reply. All the time since she had read his letter she had wondered what to say to him. For she had wished earnestly that he might not know. There was trouble enough already for them, and it could do no good to tell him. It could only add to his disquiet, and as it was they seldom met without some shadow of their specter falling over them. So she meant to bear this alone, and if by and by the barriers were destroyed, then it would add to their joy. But now it had come, through the foolish gabble of old Chukei. She looked up at him standing there, so strong and manly, and the sadness she saw smote her heart.
“Three times,” he repeated.
The old roguish smile came into her eyes. “But none of them was from a banker,” she said softly.