"She 's a humbug!" he presently exclaimed.
"Possibly!" said Rowland.

"But I have known worse ones." "She disappointed me!" Roderick continued in the same tone.
"Had she, then, really given you hopes ?" "Oh, don't recall it!" Roderick cried.

"Why the devil should I think of it?
It was only three months ago, but it seems like ten years." His friend said nothing more, and after a while he went on of his own accord.

"I believed there was a future in it all! She pleased me--pleased me; and when an artist--such as I was--is pleased, you know!" And he paused again.

"You never saw her as I did; you never heard her in her great moments.