I stood by, dumb and sheepish, not understanding how the words that I had deemed gallant could have brought this tempest down upon my head.

Before I could say aught that might have righted matters, or perchance made them worse--"Since you leave Canaples to-morrow," quoth she, "I will say 'Adieu,' Monsieur, for it is unlikely that we shall meet again." With a slight inclination of her head, and withholding her hand intentionally, she moved away, whilst I stood, as only a fool or a statue would stand, and watched her go.
Once she paused, and, indeed, half turned, whereupon hope knocked at my heart again; but before I had admitted it, she had resumed her walk towards the house.

Hungrily I followed her graceful, lissom figure with my eyes until she had crossed the threshold.

Then, with a dull ache in my breast, I flung myself upon a stone seat, and, addressing myself to the setting sun for want of a better audience, I roundly cursed her sex for the knottiest puzzle that had ever plagued the mind of man in the unravelling..