Let us consider it.

Are you engaged for this dance ?" "Yes; but I can manage to forget my partner." "That means ?" "You know very well what it means--what it always meant--in the old days." Her lips part over her beautiful teeth; now there is no mockery in her smile, only love, and a most exquisite delight.
"Ah, Marian!" says he, in a low tone.
He leads her from the room.

Her hand tightens on his arm; he feels the pressure, and now in the ball-room his arm goes round her.
She--the woman he had loved for so long--is in his arms; he forgets everything.

He has sworn to himself in the last minute or two that he _will_ forget.

Why, indeed, should he remember?
For the rest of the evening he gives himself up to Marian--devoting himself to her; telling himself he is knowing the old sweet happiness again, but always with a strange unaccountable sting at his heart..