He intended that his words should be taken, she perceived, in a general sense.

But the mind always seeks the specific: hers instinctively seized on the particular thorn that had prompted his utterance.

Of Ruth Gardner's extraordinary and inexplicable behaviour she had become informed, like everyone else; it at first amazed, then shocked, and finally outraged her sense of decency.

It repelled her--but, then, her early attempts at friendship with the other had never advanced.

The girl had always been absorbed in her own doings, immersed in pleasure or in plans for pleasure, concerned entirely with the friends she had, and, unlike Imogene, received Louise's calls and approaches at cordiality with an indifference that withered all feeling.