Why, Mathilde, that feeling of obligation _is_ love--love in its most serious form.
That's what you don't feel for me.

That's why you won't go." "I haven't said I wouldn't go." "You never even thought of going." "I have, I do.

But how can I help hesitating?
You must know I want to go." "I see very little sign of it," he murmured.

The interview had not gone as he intended.

He had not meant, he never imagined, that he would attempt to urge and coerce her; but her very detachment seemed to set a fire burning within him.
"I think," he said with an effort to sound friendly, "that I had better go and let you think this over by yourself." He was actually moving to the door when she sprang up and put her arms about him.
"Weren't you even going to kiss me, Pete ?" He stooped, and touched her cheek with his lips.
"Do you call that a kiss ?" "O Mathilde, do you think any kiss will change the facts ?" he answered, and was gone.
As soon as he had left her the desire for tears left her, too.