[The is exactly the opposite of an encouraging answer, and Lance is tempted to end the conversation there. She's not getting it.

But he'll try just a little more, because it would be wrong to give up on her so easily.]

In this circumstance, what you want is the most important thing of all. It's up to you to decide whether you want to be a better person more than you want to do whatever seems most appealing at the time, and whatever is most familiar. You can't truly change just for other people, no matter how much you care about them.

[So doing this because she gave her word is not good enough.]