Then very suddenly but very quietly he reached out and caught the swaying thing.

A moment he held it, then pulled it to him and, taking a penknife from the table, grimly, deliberately, he severed the cord.
The tassel lay in his hand, a silken thing, slightly frayed, as if convulsive fingers had torn it.

He sat for a while and looked at it.
Then, with that strange smile of his, he laid it away in a drawer..