He had captured her fingers, but they lay limp and unresponsive in
his.

"It is not a little thing; from my standpoint it is everything."

"But you will give me another chance?"

"You have had your chance. That was it. I was trying to find out
whether I loved you, and now I know that I do not. I could never marry
a man I could not--er--trust."

"Trust?" I swear to you that I am worthy of trust."

She smiled sadly and drew away her hand. "Maybe. But I shall never
know, you see, because I do not love you."

Her feminine inversion of logic increased his dismay. "I shall never
give up," he exclaimed, rising and buttoning his coat. "When you think
this over you will realize that you have exaggerated what I did."

She shook her head. His obduracy made no impression on her, for she
was free from doubts.

"We will be friends, if you like; but we can never be anything
closer."

An inspiration seized him. "What would the girl whom Jim Daly loves,
if there is one, say? She has never given him up, I wager."