“Have the kindness to explain, if you please. Do you not see how I am tortured?”
“No, no!” she cried, “not that! Were they not all refused? For what are you tortured? Ah, if you had been a woman you would have been taught in childhood how foolish it is to admit jealous thoughts. Well, then, since you insist so much, the first one was refused—I did not know why. My father gave me my wish and I said No. Then one day I went to visit an old shrine I love very much, and I found out why. After that, with the others—there was no other reason. Now is the torture ended?”
He turned to her and the smile in his eyes was complete reward. “I am very glad,” he said.
“And very foolish,” she added softly.
“I wished very much to know,” he said after a pause. “To-morrow I am summoned to the temple for examination.”
“To-morrow!” she cried. She knew it was to come but had not thought it was so near. “To-morrow!” she repeated, whispering, as if to herself. “Are you glad to go? Perhaps you will not be taken.”
“Nay,” he said, “if there is war I shall be glad and proud, and if there is no war the time will soon be ended.”
“Very soon,” she said demurely, and made as if counting on her fingers. “When a few months may seem so many years how long will three years be?”
“Long enough for more refusals,” he answered, and she laughed at the retort.