" "No, wait a minute," she said, clutching him by the sleeve.

"Wait a minute, sit down.

" "Please, please, don't let us talk of this," he said, sitting down, and at the same time feeling rise up and stir within his heart a hope he had believed to be buried.

"If I did not like you," she said, and tears came into her eyes; "if I did not know you, as I do know you .