This old place has got too deadly dull to suit me . I 'm going to look for something livelier . '' Joan 's lips turned ashen under the fringes of her white fascinator . She trembled violently and put one of her small brown hands up to her throat . `` You -- you are not coming back ? '' she said faintly . `` Not likely . I 'm pretty well tired of Prospect and I have n't got anything to hold me here . Things 'll be livelier down south . '' Joan said nothing more . They walked along the spruce-fringed roads where the moonbeams laughed down through the thick , softly swaying boughs . Paul whistled one rollicking tune after another . The girl bit her lips and clenched her hands . He cared nothing for her -- he had been making a mock of her as of others . Hurt pride and wounded love fought each other in her soul . Pride conquered . She would not let him , or anyone , see that she cared . She would not care ! At her gate Paul held out his hand . `` Well , good-bye , Joan .
I 'm sailing tomorrow so I wo n't see you again -- not XXXXX years likely .
At after along down for in of through to under