would bore you for me to
come around here and croak in this fashion."

"And you are not coming back for a long, long time?"

"Not for a long, long time." He mimicked her tone. "I have the three
violets now, you know, and you must remember that I took the third one
even when you flung it at my head. That will remind you how submissive I
was in my devotion. When you recall the two others it will remind you of
what a fool I was. Dare say you won't miss three violets."

"No," she said.

"Particularly the one you flung at my head. That violet was certainly
freely--given."

"I didn't fling it at your head." She pondered for a time with her eyes
upon the floor. Then she murmured, "No more freely--given than the one I
gave you that night--that night at the inn."

"So very good of you to tell me so!"

Her eyes were still upon the floor.

"Do you know," said Hawker, "it is very hard to go away and leave an
impression in your mind that I am a fool? That is very hard. Now, you
do think I am a fool, don't you?"

She remained silent. Once she lifted her eyes and gave him a swift look
with much indignation in it.

"Now you are enraged. Well, what have I done?"

It seemed that some tumult was in her mind, for she cried out to him at
last in sudden tearfulness: "Oh, do go! Go! Please! I want you to go!"

Under this swift change Hawker appeared as a man struck from the sky. He
sprang to his feet, took two steps forward, and spoke a word which was
an explosion of delight and amazement. He said, "What?"

With heroic effort she slowly raised her eyes until, alight with anger,
defiance, unhappiness, they met his eyes.

Later, she told him that he was perfectly ridiculous.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THIRD VIOLET***

******* This file should be named 19593.txt or 19593.zip *******

This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/5/9/19593

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT G