"Certainly."
"Please don't——"
"You are always lingering dangerously close to the border of impertinence," she said. "I do not wish to be rude or ungracious. I have been unpardonably annoyed, and—when I consider my present false situation—I am annoyed still more. Let me be unmistakably clear and concise; I do not feel any—anger—toward you; I have no feeling whatever toward you; and I do not ever expect to see you again. Let it rest so. I will drop you my best curtsey when you lift your hat to me at Twenty-ninth Street. Can a guilty man ask more?"
"Your punishment is severe," he said, flushing.
"My punishment? Who am I punishing, if you please?"
"Me."
"What folly! I entertain no human emotions toward you; I have no desire to punish you. How could I punish you—if I wished to?"
"By doing what you are doing."
"And what is that?" she asked rather softly.
"Denying me any hope of ever knowing you."