The very fact of her appeal for a material sign, a sign that should make her dead lover equal there with the others, presented the concession to her friend as too handsome for the case.

He had never thought of himself as hard, but an exorbitant article might easily render him so.

He moved round and round this one, but only in widening circles--the more he looked at it the less acceptable it seemed.

At the same time he had no illusion about the effect of his refusal; he perfectly saw how it would make for a rupture.

He left her alone a week, but when at last he again called this conviction was cruelly confirmed.