“I remember,” he admitted. “But that was nonsense. I didn’t know what I was saying. My poor Rosa, I was delirious. And that is just why I wished to see you — in order to explain to you that that was nonsense. You must forget what I said. Remember only that I love you.”

(“So Emmeline was right,” I reflected.)

Abruptly Rosa stood up.

“You must not love me, Alresca,” she said in a shaking voice. “You ask me to forget something; I will try. You, too, must forget something — your love.”

“But last night,” he cried, in accents of an almost intolerable pathos — ”last night, when I hinted — you did not — did not speak like this, Rosetta.”