In this way, a promise is like a gift; it must be accepted or not rejected to be given at all. Otherwise, I will have no more than tried to promise (or give a gift). Various other rights and prerogatives derive from the would-be promisee’s authority to reject the promise. Just as it is part of the very idea of a gift that it cannot be forced on someone, so also does a would-be promisee have standing to demand that he be genuinely free to reject it—that his acceptance not be forced, manipulated,