She felt for her good-looking, helpless patient a profound and honest pity.

I do not know whether she had ever heard that "pity was akin to love." She would probably have resented that utterly untenable and atrocious commonplace.

There was no suggestion, real or illusive, of any previous masterful quality in the man which might have made his present dependent condition picturesque by contrast.

He had come to her handicapped by an unromantic accident and a practical want of energy and intellect.

He would have to touch her interest anew if, indeed, he would ever succeed in dispelling the old impression.