I only ask you to tell me if you are a free man again." Quiet as it was, her tone left him no alternative but to treat her brutally or to reply.

Still looking out at the street, he said "Yes." "Free to marry, if you like ?" she persisted.
He said "Yes" once more--and kept his face steadily turned away from her.

She waited a while.

He neither moved nor spoke.
Surviving the slow death little by little of all her other illusions, one last hope had lingered in her heart.

It was killed by that cruel look, fixed on the view of the street.
"I'll try to think of a place that we can go to at the seaside." Having said those words she slowly moved away to the door, and turned back, remembering the packet of letters.