Nobody dare make gross comment upon her, but, while he saw her
loveliness as only such a man could--she had gradually realized
that she had never had even a chance with him. She could not
even think that if she had not been so silly and frightened that
awful day six years ago, and had not lost her head, he might have
admired her more and more and in the end asked her to marry him.
He had said there must be no mistakes, and she had not been allowed
to fall into making one. The fact that she had not, had, finally,
made her feel the power of a certain fascination in him. She thought
it was a result of his special type of looks, his breeding, the
wonderful clothes he wore--but it was, in truth, his varieties of
inaccessibility.
"A girl might like him," she had said to herself that night--she
sat up late after he left her. "A girl who--who had up-to-date sense
might. Modern people don't grow old as they used to. At fifty-five
he won't be fat, or bald and he won't have lost his teeth. People
have found out they needn't. He will be as thin and straight as
he is today--and nothing can alter his nose. He will be ten years
cleverer than he is now. Buying the house for a child of that
age--building additional rooms for her!"
In the fevered, rapid, deep-dipping whirl of the life which was
the only one she knew, she had often seen rather trying things
happen--almost unnatural changes in situations.
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