In reality, the relationship was a strained and sometimes comical mismatch, a 50‑year‑long saga of crossed purposes - with Yeats doing all the suffering and Maud forever striving to keep him at arm’s length.
Sliding into the warmth he had just left, inhaling the scent of him on the pillows, surrounded by his clothes, books and possessions, she could feel her resolve to keep him at arm’s length ebbing relentlessly away.
Mr. Smith’s notes to Cumber v. Wane, is not (as I conceive) that sort of benefit which a creditor may derive from getting payment of part of the money due to him from a debtor who might otherwise keep him at arm’s length, or possibly become insolvent, but is some independent benefit.