“Say what you like then.  I’ll listen,” said Jo, with a desperate sort of patience.

Laurie was a young lover, but he was in earnest, and meant to ‘have it out’, if he died in the attempt, so he plunged into the subject with characteristic impetuousity, saying in a voice that would get choky now and then, in spite of manful efforts to keep it steady . . .

“I’ve loved you ever since I’ve known you, Jo, couldn’t help it, you’ve been so good to me.  I’ve tried to show it, but you wouldn’t let me.  Now I’m going to make you hear, and give me an answer, for I can’t go on so any longer.”

“I wanted to save you this.  I thought you’d understand . . .” began Jo, finding it a great deal harder than she expected.

“I know you did, but the girls are so queer you never know what they mean.  They say no when they mean yes, and drive a man out of his wits just for the fun of it,” returned Laurie, entrenching himself behind an undeniable fact.

“I don’t.  I never wanted to make you care for me so, and I went away to keep you from it if I could.”

“I thought so.  It was like you, but it was no use.  I only loved you all the more, and I worked hard to please you, and I gave up billiards and everything you didn’t like, and waited and never complained, for I hoped you’d love me, though I’m not half good enough . . .”  Here there was a choke that couldn’t be controlled, so he decapitated buttercups while he cleared his ‘confounded throat’.

“You, you are, you’re a great deal too good for me, and I’m so grateful to you, and so proud and fond of you, I don’t know why I can’t love you as you want me to.  I’ve tried, but I can’t change the feeling, and it would be a lie to say I do when I don’t.”

“Really, truly, Jo?”

He stopped short, and caught both her hands as he put his question with a look that she did not soon forget.

“Really, truly, dear.”

They were in the grove now, close by the stile, and when the last words fell reluctantly from Jo’s lips, Laurie dropped her hands and turned as if to go on, but for once in his life the fence was too much for him.  So he just laid his head down on the mossy post, and stood so still that Jo was frightened.

“Oh, Teddy, I’m sorry, so desperately sorry, I could kill myself if it would do any good!  I wish you wouldn’t take it so hard, I can’t help it.  You know it’s impossible for people to make themselves love other people if they don’t,” cried Jo inelegantly but remorsefully, as she softly patted his shoulder, remembering the time when he had comforted her so long ago.

“They do sometimes,” said a muffled voice from the post.  “I don’t believe it’s the right sort of love, and I’d rather not try it,” was the decided answer.

There was a long pause, while a blackbird sung blithely on the willow by the river, and the tall grass rustled in the wind.  Presently Jo said very soberly, as she sat down on the step of the stile, “Laurie, I want to tell you something.”