She was not so desirable, after all.

But this reaction was so faint, so subtle, so intangible, that in another moment he had doubted its occurrence.

Yet afterward it returned.

Was there not something gone from Trina now?
Was he not disappointed in her for doing that very thing for which he had longed?
Was Trina the submissive, the compliant, the attainable just the same, just as delicate and adorable as Trina the inaccessible?
Perhaps he dimly saw that this must be so, that it belonged to the changeless order of things--the man desiring the woman only for what she withholds; the woman worshipping the man for that which she yields up to him.

With each concession gained the man's desire cools; with every surrender made the woman's adoration increases.
But why should it be so?
Trina wrenched herself free and drew back from McTeague, her little chin quivering; her face, even to the lobes of her pale ears, flushed scarlet; her narrow blue eyes brimming.