The Countess Olenska's Refusal

Four months had passed since the midsummer day that he and madame olenska had spent together, and since then, he had not seen her. He wrote to her once, a few words, asking when they were to meet again, and she had even more briefly replied, not yet. Since then, there had been no further communication between them,. Archer built up within himself a kind of sanctuary in which she throned among his secret thoughts and longings. Little by little, it became the scene of his real life, of his only rational activities. Thither he brought the books he read, the ideas and feelings which nourished him, his judgments and visions outside of it