He had even thought that night that her feeling for him had passed, and he had taken delight in the thought, and caught visions of the satisfying future friendship that would be theirs with this perturbing love out of the way.
And then, when he stood at the door, cap in hand, and said good night.
It had struck him at the time as a funny and embarrassing thing, her bending over his hand and kissing it.

He had felt like a fool, but he shivered now when he looked back on it and felt again the touch of her lips on his hand.

She was saying good-by, an eternal good-by, and he had never guessed.

At that very moment, and for all the moments of the evening, coolly and deliberately, as he well knew her way, she had been resolved to die.

If he had only known it! Untouched by the contagious malady himself, nevertheless he would have married her if he had had the slightest inkling of what she contemplated.