But it is to such men as this that when at last love grips them, binding them slowly and secretly with its clinging tendrils, it comes as an irresistible force to be reckoned with throughout the remainder of their lives.
So it came about that as the weeks grew into months, Mallory perceived--dimly and with a quaint resignation to the inevitable--that Nan and Love were coming to him hand in hand.
His first thought had been to seek safety in flight; then that gently humorous philosophy with which he habitually looked life in the face asserted itself, and with a shrug and a muttered "Kismet," he remained.
Nan appealed to him as no other woman had ever done.

The ineffaceable quality of race about her pleased his fastidious taste; the French blood in her called to his; nor could he escape the heritage of charm bequeathed her by the fair and frail Angele de Varincourt.

Above all, he understood her.

Her temperament--idealistic and highly-strung, responsive as a violin to every shade of atmosphere--invoked his own, with its sensitiveness and keen, perceptive faculty.
But this very comprehension of her temperament blinded him to the possibility that there was any danger of her growing to care for him other than as a friend.

He appreciated the fact that she had just received a buffeting from fate, that her confidence was shaken and her pride hurt to breaking-point, and the thought never entered his head that a woman so recently bruised by the hands of love--or more truly, love's simulacrum--could be tempted to risk her heart again so soon.
Feeling very safe, therefore, in the fact of his marriage, which was yet no marriage, and sure that there was no chance of his hurting Nan, he let himself love her, keeping his love tenderly in one of those secret empty rooms of the heart--empty rooms of which only the thrice-blessed in this world have no knowledge.
Outwardly, all that Peter permitted himself was to give her an unfailing friendship, to surround her with an atmosphere of homage and protection and adapt himself responsively to her varying moods.