It hurts in the growing, and sometimes breaks the heart from which it grows." She answered nothing.

He was talking in a way she did not understand,--his allusion to Apollo and Daphne was completely beyond her.

She smothered a tiny yawn and wondered why he was so tedious.
Moreover, she was conscious of some slight chagrin, for though she said, out of mere social hypocrisy, that she was not clever, she thought herself exceptionally so.

Why could he not admit her abilities as readily as she herself admitted them?
"No, you are not clever," he resumed quietly.

"And I am glad you are not.