“What is that?” I asked, quickly.

“It is because I keep a tavern,” she answered.  “It would be wrong and wicked for you to marry a woman who keeps a tavern.”

Now my face flushed.  I could feel it burning.  “Keep a tavern!” I exclaimed.  “That is a horrible way to put it!  But why should you think for an instant that I cared for that?  Do you suppose I consider that a dishonorable calling?  I would be only too glad to adopt it myself and help you keep a tavern, as you call it.”

“That is the trouble!” she exclaimed.  “That is the greatest trouble.  I believe you would.  I believe that you think that the life would just suit you.”

“Then sweep away the tavern!” I exclaimed.  “Banish it.  Leave it.  Put it out of all thought or consideration.  I can wait for you.  I can make a place and a position for you.  I can—­”

“No, you cannot,” she interrupted.  “At least, not for a long time, unless one of your scholars dies and leaves you a legacy.  It is the future that I am thinking about.  No matter what you might sweep away, and to what position you might attain, it could always be said, ’He married a woman who used to keep a tavern.’  Now, every one who is a friend to you, who knows what is before you, if you choose to try for it, should do everything that can be done to prevent such a thing ever being said of you.  I am a friend to you, and I am going to prevent it.”

I stood unable to say one word.  Her voice, her eyes, even the manner in which she stood before me, assured me that she meant everything she said.  It was almost impossible to believe that such an amiable creature could turn into such an icicle.

“I do not want you to feel worse than you can help,” she said, “but it was necessary for me to speak as firmly and decidedly as I could, and now it is all settled.”

I knew it was all settled.  I knew it as well as if it had been settled for years.  But, with my eyes still ardently fixed on her, I remembered the little flush when she came into the room.

“Tell me one thing,” said I, “and I will go.  If it were not for what you say about your position in life, and all that—­if there had not been such a place as this inn—­then could you—­”

She moved away from me.  “You are as great a bear as the other one!” she exclaimed, and turning she left the room by a door in the rear.  But in the next moment she ran back, holding out her hand.  “Good-bye!” she said.

I took her hand, but held it not a second.  Then she was gone.  I stood looking at the door which she had closed behind her, and then I left the house.  There was no reason why I should stay in that place another minute.

As I was about to mount my bicycle the boy came around the corner of the inn.  Upon his face was a diabolical grin.  The thought rushed into my mind that he might have been standing beneath the parlor window.  Instinctively I made a movement towards him, but he did not run.  I turned my eyes away from him and mounted.  I could not kill a boy in the presence of a nurse-maid.