--but I don't understand. You can't mean
that you have promised--that you expect--to marry any one else but me?"
And as Martie again allowed a silence to fall, he took a few steps away
from her, walking like a person blinded by sudden pain. "I don't
understand," he said again. "I never thought of anything but that we
belonged to each other--I've thought of it all the time! And now you
tell me--I can't believe it! Is it settled? Is it all decided?"

"My family and his family know," Martie said.

"Oh, but Martie--you can't mean that!" he burst out in agony. "What
have I done! What have I done--to have you do this! You don't love him!"

"John," she said steadily, catching his hands, "even if I were free,
you aren't, dear. We could never be married while Adele lives."

He turned his steady gaze upon her.

"Then last night--" he asked gravely.

"Last night I was a fool, John--I was all to blame! I'm so sorry--I'm
so terribly sorry!"

"I thought last night--" He turned away under the willows, and she
anxiously followed him. "You let me think you cared!"

"John, I do care!"

"You SAID you did!"

"I don't know what was the matter with me," Martie said wretchedly, "I
was so carried away by seeing you so suddenly--and thinking of old
times--and of all we had been through together--"

"But it wasn't of that we talked, Martie!"

"I know." Her head drooped. "I know!"

"I'm so sorry," he said, bewildered and hurt. "I don't understand you.
I can't believe that you are going to marry that man, whoever he is;
you didn't say anything about him last night! Who is he--what right has
he got to come into it?"

"He's a good and honourable man, John, and he asked me. And I said yes."

"You said yes--loving me?"

"Oh, John dear--you don't understand--"

"No," he said heavily, "I confess I don't."

The tone, curt and cold, brought tears to her eyes, and he saw them.
Instantly he was all penitence.

"Martie--ah, don't cry! Don't cry for me! Don't--I tell you, or I shall
rush off somewhere--I can't see you cry! I'll try to understand. But
you see last night--last night made me hope that you might care for me
a little--I couldn't sleep, Martie, I was so happy! But I won't think
of that. Now tell me, I'm quite quiet, you see. Tell me. You don't mean
that you don't--feel anything about it?"

"John," she said simply, "I don't know whether I love you or not. I
know that--that last night was one of the wonderful times of my life