not to put too fine a figure on it , but nine out of ten people would have taken the road of lies and excuses ; in this particular case , after they and their boyfriend of one year had painstakingly resolved their huge , seemingly unforgivable differences , they would have purported that the man they had been with for three days had attacked them , or coerced them with his silver tongue and maybe even with his grasp on the power of harnessing emotions .