"I imagine," he said to Roderick, "that you are not sorry, at present,
to have allowed yourself to be dissuaded from making a final rupture
with Miss Garland."
Roderick eyed him with the vague and absent look which had lately become
habitual to his face, and repeated "Dissuaded?"
"Don't you remember that, in Rome, you wished to break your engagement,
and that I urged you to respect it, though it seemed to hang by so
slender a thread? I wished you to see what would come of it? If I am not
mistaken, you are reconciled to it."
"Oh yes," said Roderick, "I remember what you said; you made it a
kind of personal favor to yourself that I should remain faithful. I
consented, but afterwards, when I thought of it, your attitude greatly
amused me. Had it ever been seen before?--a man asking another man to
gratify him by not suspending his attentions to a pretty girl!"
"It was as selfish as anything else," said Rowland. "One man puts his
selfishness into one thing, and one into another. It would have utterly
marred my comfort to see Miss Garland in low spirits."
"But you liked her--you admired her, eh? So you intimated.
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