He was torn between a wish to spare
her and the desire to urge his own purpose. But more immediately he
wanted to make secure the near hour of his seeing her again. He asked,
finally, "Will you be at the Jannans' this week, or are visitors
received at the Academy?"
"No," she replied to the first; "and I have very little time between
classes. You see, they fill the whole day, tasks and pleasures. It is
difficult for me to--to talk on a generality of themes with callers."
"I have no intention of being diffuse," he replied pointedly. "I could
confine my entire conversation to one request--"
"Please," she interrupted pitiably. "I am utterly wretched now. The
simplest gentility--" she paused, but her wish was clear. He restrained
himself with difficulty. Drifting slowly across the scattered roofs of
the town was the leaden smoke of his mills and fires; as they drove into
the main street the thin crash of his iron was audible. Men everywhere
bowed to him with marked respect. But the woman at his side sat erect,
drawn away from him, unmoved by all that, to the world, he was. There
was an appalling quality in her aloofness from what, materially, he
might advance in extenuation; the things so generally potent here were
no more than slag.
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