Tears had always melted honest Tom, was his wrath never so dire, and tears would no doubt subdue Philip Sheldon.
But Georgy had to discover that the dentist was made of a stuff very different from that softer clay which composed the rollicking good-tempered farmer.

Mr.Sheldon watched her tears with the cold-blooded deliberation of a scientific experimentalist.

He was glad to find that he could make her cry.

She was a necessary instrument in the working out of certain plans that he had made for himself, and he was anxious to discover whether she was likely to be a plastic instrument.

He knew that her love for him had never been worth much at its best, and that the poor little flickering flame had been utterly extinguished by nine years of commonplace domesticity and petty jealousy.