Justin: "I suppose we could. But Miss Vasilver has kindly honored my request for confidentiality in the event she refused my offer. And l wish neither to alienate Nikola further still, nor for the public spectacle and attendant humiliation of everyone knowing my offer was spurned. Bad enough to be a figure of pathos in my own mind; I can at least be spared the pitying looks."

Justin "... and even this mockery of friendship, this stomach-knotting sham, is better than continual open hostility would be."