One has to be in an attitude of adoration in order to get on with Katharine.
"Now I've learnt that she's refused to marry him why don't I go home ?" Denham thought to himself.

But he went on walking beside Rodney, and for a time they did not speak, though Rodney hummed snatches of a tune out of an opera by Mozart.

A feeling of contempt and liking combine very naturally in the mind of one to whom another has just spoken unpremeditatedly, revealing rather more of his private feelings than he intended to reveal.

Denham began to wonder what sort of person Rodney was, and at the same time Rodney began to think about Denham.
"You're a slave like me, I suppose ?" he asked.
"A solicitor, yes." "I sometimes wonder why we don't chuck it.

Why don't you emigrate, Denham?
I should have thought that would suit you." "I've a family." "I'm often on the point of going myself.