(He did not yet see that that made it all the more touching.) He did not quite see what to do next.

He was Christian enough to resent the whole affair; but he was aristocratic enough in his fastidiousness to think at this moment that perhaps it did not matter much for people of this sort.

Perhaps it was the highest ideal that persons resembling the Major and Gertie could conceive.

But her next remark helped to break up his complacency.
"You're a Catholic," she said.

"People say that you Catholics don't mind this kind of thing--me and the Major, I mean." There was a dreadful sort of sly suggestiveness about this remark that stung him.