"No," said Anna.
"Is it a dead man, now?"
Anna moved uneasily. "No, it isn't," she said. "'Tisn't anybody."
But Thomas persisted. "Would it be Noel, if he warn't dead in France?"
"Maybe."
"You're not going to keep on thinking of him, are you?"
"I don't plan to."
"Then—" and Thomas came back to the old question once more, "why not?"
"Why not what?"
"Take me, then?"