He had--did she remember ?--expected this from the first.

Spencer had lost his head through vanity, and had attempted too much.

It required foresight and firmness, as he himself--who had lately made successful "combinations" which she might perhaps have heard of--well knew.

But Spencer had got the "big head." "As to that woman--a devilish handsome woman too!--well, everybody knew that Spencer always had a weakness that way, and he would say--but if she didn't care to hear any more about her--well, perhaps she was right.
That was the best way to take it." Sitting before her, prosperous, weak, egotistical, incompetent, unavailable, and yet filled with a vague kindliness of intent, Mrs.Tucker loathed him.

A sickening perception of her own weakness in sending for him, a new and aching sense of her utter isolation and helplessness, seemed to paralyze her.
"Nat'rally you feel bad," he continued, with the large air of a profound student of human nature.