“In for a penny, in for a pound,” he said to himself. And then the thoughts which he believed at that moment were what dominated his action formed themselves in his brain into some such words as these: “I’ve absolutely no heart for seeing Christie now, or Darnley either! But I suppose it would be an absurd piling up of misunderstandings if I disappointed them.”

Grasping the handle of his stick tightly in his hand, and seeing Gerda’s stricken face and wild, tearless stare in the very midst of the doorway, he entered the shop.