Women had always been shy of him, and with his abnormal shape and his absorption in business it had been easy for him to miss what lay beneath the surface.

But for the accident of his meeting with Clara, his temperament would have carried him through life, unconscious of love from his own experience and regarding it as a fable of women and poets.
Jonah never spent money willingly, except where Ray was concerned, and Clara in their first meetings had been surprised and chilled by his anxiety to get the value of his money.

He had informed her, bluntly, that money was not made by spending it; but for some months he had been surprised by a desire to spend his money to adorn and beautify this woman.

Clara, however, maintaining her independence with a wary eye, had refused to take presents from him.

He had become more civilized and more human under the weight of his generous emotions, but they could find no outlet.
It was the affair of Hans Paasch that opened his eye to the power for good that she exercised over him.