It had precipitated the necessity of some decision.

She could no longer hold him off, and play with him.

By that bold dash he had gained a vantage-ground, a certain masterful attitude which he had never held before.

Yet, after all, I am not sure that she was not just a little afraid of him, and, moreover, that she did not like him all the better for it.

It was such a novel feeling that it began to make some things, thought of in connection with him, seem more possible to her mind than they had ever seemed before.