For now, indeed, I saw that my gem was but a pebble.

And the echo of her laugh rang in my ears.
"So I can't come, Simon," I heard her say.

"You see that I can't come.
No, no, I can't come"; and again she laughed.
I sat where I was, hearing nothing but the echo of her laugh, unable to think save of the truth that was driven so cruelly into my mind.

The first realising of things that cannot be undone brings to a young man a fierce impotent resentment; that was in my heart, and with it a sudden revulsion from what I had desired, as intemperate as the desire, as cruel, it may be, as the thing which gave it birth.

Nell's laughter died away, and she was silent.