“Yes—honored,” she repeated, and her lips quivered.
She paused a moment to steady her voice.
“I appreciate your generosity and your confidence,” she added. “But I cannot wrong either. I cannot do what you say.”
“Why?”
“Why? For innumerable reasons, for reasons as countless as those sands.”
“One will do! Do you dislike me? Do you resent?”
She shook her head.
“No. Oh, no!”
“Do you think you would not be happy with me?”
“I am certain that you would be miserable, and I so too to know that I had caused your misery.”