She had behaved very well, but still he would not be weak enough to yield to her in everything at once.

As to opening her desk, or going up-stairs into her room, that he felt to be quite impossible.
Even his nature did not admit of that.

But neither did his nature allow him to ask her pardon and to own that he had been wrong.

She had said that he must implore her forgiveness at her feet.

One word, however, one look, would have sufficed.