When she spoke he heard harmonies not framed in mere words, whereas the other fair dame was unquestionably a deaf mute.
Indeed, while his glance was dwelling, to all outward semblance, on the passing traffic of one of New York's busiest thoroughfares, he was admitting to himself that he was deeply, irrevocably, in love, and the knowledge was almost stupefying.

To one of Curtis's temperament it seemed to be a wildly fanciful thing that he should have yielded so swiftly.

Two hours ago he had not seen Hermione, did not even know her name, whereas now he breathed it with devout reverence, though, with a perverseness seldom attached to such circumstances, the amazing fact that she was his wife formed a stubborn barrier against which the flood of new-born desire must rage in vain.

For, above all else, he held dear his plighted word.

He knew now that the marriage offered an almost insuperable obstacle to any effort on his part to win the girl's affections.