Perhaps she was not blameworthy at all, but rather deserving of all praise; for, if she had come to know, beyond doubt, that she did not love Norbert Franks as she had thought, then to break the engagement was her simple duty, and the courage with which she had taken this step must be set to her credit.

Naturally, it would be some time before Franks himself took that view.

A third person, whose vanity was not concerned, might moralise thus-- Will checked himself on an unpleasant thought.

Was _his_ vanity, in truth, unconcerned in this story?
Why, then, had he been conscious of a sub-emotion, quite unavowable, which contradicted his indignant sympathy during that talk last night in the street?
If the lover's jealousy were as ridiculous as he pretended, why did he feel what now he could confess to himself was an unworthy titillation, when Franks seemed to accuse him of some part in the girl's disloyalty?
Vanity, that, sure enough; vanity of a very weak and futile kind.

He would stamp the last traces of it out of his being.