It could not be from the caprice that had formerly taken him; it must be from a definite purpose; again he realized this.

"Of course; you are right," he said.
"I wish I could have answered that old man differently.

I fancy he was bound up in his son, though he quarrelled with him, and crossed him.

But I couldn't do it; it wasn't possible." He said to himself that if she said "No," now, he would be ruled by her agreement with him; and if she disagreed with him, he would be ruled still by the chance, and would go no more to the Dryfooses'.

He found himself embarrassed to the point of blushing when she said nothing, and left him, as it were, on his own hands.