Laurie graduates with honour, gives the Latin oration, and basks in sincere family pride before asking Jo to meet him as she always has. She knows what is coming, yet keeps the old jew's-harp joke alive until the grove path slows him down and he says he has loved her ever since he has known her. Jo answers with the honesty she promised herself: she is fond of him, grateful, proud of him, but she cannot love him as a wife should, and it would be a lie to pretend.
He rests his head on the mossy fence post when she refuses, then flares when she tries reason. He accuses her of loving the Professor; she denies any romance there while admitting she will not marry on pressure from Grandpa, her parents, or her own habit of giving in. She lists temper, scribbling, and society tastes that would make them miserable, and holds to liberty when he says she will love someone someday and die for him. When she holds firm, he turns away toward the river with a melodramatic threat, rows off instead, and leaves Jo walking home feeling as if she has murdered something innocent and must prepare Mr. Laurence to be very kind to her poor boy.
She tells the old gentleman the hard story herself and breaks down over her own insensibility while he hopes she will change her mind yet knows love cannot be forced. That night Laurie plays the Sonata Pathetique with a force Jo understands better than Beth does; Marmee calls Jo inside, Grandpa learns the truth, and offers Europe so the boy will not brood at home. Laurie stares from his window with a tragic face that haunts Jo's dreams, then accepts travel with his grandfather before the mood turns reckless. At the final carriage farewell he asks once more, Oh Jo, can't you, and she answers, Teddy, dear, I wish I could, knowing the boy she grew up with will not come back even if the man someday might. She will wonder why girls refuse lovers and carry guilt like a stone, yet she will not undo the truth she told in the grove.
