Stella was evidently one to accept rather than to give, and there had been moments when this had slightly galled him.

She seemed to him fundamentally incapable of any deep feeling, and though this had not begun to affect their relations at present, he had realized in a vague fashion that because of it she would not hold him for ever.

So, after the first, he knew that he would find consolation.

Certainly he would not break his heart for her or for any woman, nor did he flatter himself that she would break hers for him.
Meantime--he prepared to shrug his shoulders over the inevitable.

Things might have been much worse.