"It was manly,--gentlemanly; and that was enough. Then all at once he's
taken aback! All control of himself gone, all self-suppression, all
conscience"--

"The conscience has returned," said the girl.

"Oh, not to guide him! Only to goad him! Fifty consciences can't
honorably undo the mischief now!"

"Did I not write you that there was already, then, a coolness between
her and Leonard?"

"Yes; but the whole bigness and littleness of Arthur's small, bad deed
lies in the fact that, though he knew that coolness was but a momentary
tiff, with Isabel in the wrong, he took advantage of it to push his suit
in between and spoil as sweet a match as two hearts were ever making."

"It was more than a tiff, Godfrey; it"--

"Not a bit more! not--a--bit!"

"Yes!--yes--it was a problem! a problem how to harmonize two fine
natures keyed utterly unlike. Leonard saw that. That is why he moved so
slowly."

"Hmm!" The lover stared away grimly. "I know something about slowness.
I suppose it's a virtue--sometimes."

"I think so," said the girl, caressing a flower.