He kept from touching me while he asked for my answer.

Then--I refused him, point blank, giving a reason he could not question.

He turned from me and left the church, and I have not spoken to him from that day to this." A long silence in the doctor's consulting-room.

One manly heart was entering into the pain of another, and yet striving not to be indignant until he knew the whole truth.
Jane's spirit was strung up to the same pitch as in that fateful hour, and once more she thought herself right.
At last the doctor spoke.

He looked at her searchingly now, and held her eyes.
"And why did you refuse him, Jane ?" The kind voice was rather stern.
Jane put out her hands to him appealingly.