An unnamed speaker tells a man named John that she has never professed to love him. She asks why he continues to court her and ask her daily for love she doesn't feel. She reminds him that he has always known she doesn't return his feelings. She has done nothing to make him love her or to encourage him. Even so, he hangs around her in a ghostly way. Other women would be willing to love John, the speaker says, if he would pay attention to them instead of to her. She begs him not to turn down potential relationships for the sake of someone who can't return his feelings.
Knowing that John finds her heartless, the speaker argues that she cannot be faulted for her lack of interest. After all, if she has no heart, she lacks the capacity to love him, and therefore cannot be faulted. It's time, she says, for John to let go of his hopes and for him to stop placing blame on the speaker—who, after all, never claimed to return his feelings. The speaker drives the point home by saying that she would turn him down fifty more times. She proposes that the two of them both try to end the conflict and enjoy their youths on pleasant terms, shaking hands as friends but agreeing that no romance will take place. The speaker even offers to forgive John's unfair and untrue claims.
Their friendship, the speaker says, will be enjoyable provided John abandons hope that the speaker will change her mind. She then thanks him for his offer of love, but, one final time, tells him no.
