. She
should never know that he was less a gentleman than she believed him.

She had told him, to be sure, that he owed her nothing because she
loved him; but it had just struck him that he owed her at least, on that
account, a more solicitous respect and consideration than any one else
had the right to expect from him.

There were no precedents to guide him, no rules of etiquette prescribing
the proper thing for a young man to do under such circumstances as
these. It was a new problem he had to work out, directed only by such
generous and manly instincts as he might have. Plainly the first thing,
and in fact the only thing that he could do for her, seeing that he
really could not return her affection, was to show her that she had not
forfeited his esteem.

At first he thought of writing her a note and assuring her, in a few
gracefully turned sentences, of his high respect in spite of what she
had done. But somehow the gracefully turned sentences did not occur to
his mind when he took up his pen, and it did occur to him that to write
persons that you still respect them is equivalent to intimating that
their conduct justly might have forfeited your respect. Nor would it be
at all easier to give such an assurance by word of mouth. In fact, quite
the reverse. The meaning to be conveyed was too delicate for words. Only
the unspoken language of his manner and bearing could express it without
offense. It might, however, be some time before chance brought them
together in society, even if she did not, for a while at least,
purposely avoid him. Meantime, uncertain how her extraordinary action
had impressed him, how was she likely to enjoy her thoughts?

In the generous spirit bred of his new contrition, it seemed to him a
brutal thing to leave her weeks or even days in such a condition of mind
as must be hers. Inaction on his part was all that was required to make
her position intolerable. Inaction was not therefore permissible to him.
It was a matter in which he must take the initiative, and there seemed
to be just one thing he could do which would at all answer the purpose.
A brief formal call, with the conversation strictly limited to the
weather and similarly safe subjects, would make it possible for them to
meet thereafter in society without too acute embarrassment. Had he
the pluck for this, the nerve to carry it through? That was the only
question. There was no doubt as to what he ought to do. It would be an
awkward