"Good-bye!" he resumed.

"My sensitive foot feels noises: don't bang the door." Getting out into the lane again, Ovid looked at his letter to the doctor at Montreal.

His first impulse was to destroy it.
As Benjulia had hesitated before giving him the letter, so he now hesitated before tearing it up.
Contrary to the usual practice in such cases, the envelope was closed.
Under those circumstances, Ovid's pride decided him on using the introduction.

Time was still to pass, before events opened his eyes to the importance of his decision.

To the end of his life he remembered that Benjulia had been near to keeping back the letter, and that he had been near to tearing it up..