On the further side of it he stopped again and, after a minute, with a nervous movement, set a ball or two in motion.
"It's beautiful--but it's terrible!" he finally murmured.

He hadn't his eyes on Vanderbank, who for a minute said nothing, and he presently went on: "To see it and not to want to try to help--well, I can't do that." Vanderbank, still neither speaking nor moving, remained as if he might interrupt something of high importance, and his friend, passing along the opposite edge of the table, continued to produce in the stillness, without the cue, the small click of the ivory.

"How long--if you don't mind my asking--have you known it ?" Even for this at first Vanderbank had no answer--none but to rise from his place, come down to the floor and, standing there, look at Mr.
Longdon across the table.

He was serious now, but without being solemn.
"How can one tell?
One can never be sure.

A man may fancy, may wonder; but about a girl, a person so much younger than himself and so much more helpless, he feels a--what shall I call it ?" "A delicacy ?" Mr.Longdon suggested.