All the old tenderness, the joy of being near him revived.

It was useless to ask why, useless to call herself weak and silly to be drawn towards a man who had no force of character, whose prospects were remote, whose health was undermined.

The impression she once had that he was faithless had not wholly disappeared, and she tried to banish it.

Her imagination found for him all manner of excuses.

Yet she could not decide that she wanted to see him again.