Well, he would do so, and then when he came back again, when all the world was at his feet, and there were long articles in the paper announcing his arrival, these people would throng around him; he would show them what a great and noble nature he really had; he would forgive them; he would ignore what they had done.

He even dramatized a little scene between himself and Turner, then Mrs.Haight.
They would both be pretty old then and he would take her children on his lap and look at her over their heads--he could almost see those heads, white, silky and very soft--and he would nod at her thoughtfully, and say, "Well, I have taken your advice, do you remember ?" and she was to answer, "Yes, I remember." There were actually tears in his eyes as he saw the scene.
At the very first he thought that he could not live without Turner; that he loved her too much to be able to give her up.

But in a little while he saw that this was not so.

She was right, too, in saying that he had long since outlived his first sincere affection for her.

He had felt for a long time that he did not love her well enough to marry her; that he did not love her as young Haight did, and he acknowledged to himself that this affair at least had ended rightly.