He did not define the emotion exactly, nor see clearly what he wished to do, but in a general way he wanted to be necessary to her, and to let her know at the same time that she was nothing to him.

He was quite sure that the opposite was the truth just now.
At this point he shrugged his shoulders, angry that he should have slipped so easily into the character of a sullen boy, hating a benefactor for no reason other than his benefactions; but the same vicious impulse made him study the face of Sally Fortune with an impersonal, coldly critical eye.

It was not easy to do, for she sat with her head tilted back a little, as though to take the warmth of the fire more fully.

The faint smile on her lips showed her comfort, mingled with retrospection.
Here he lost the trend of his thoughts by beginning to wonder of what she could be thinking, but he called himself back sharply to the analysis of her features.

It was a game with which he had often amused himself among the girls of his eastern acquaintance.