oolish, ignorant girl, though to be sure the tone in
which she had expressed this fear was not very grave. But though she
must have been perfectly aware of her own powers of attraction, the
idea that any deeper feeling might bind him to her never seemed to
enter her head. The longer he watched her, the more he became convinced
that in speaking of love as she had, she had given utterance to her
real opinions. It actually appeared to her like a sort of madness, by
which weak minds were sometimes attacked. How a sensible man, who came
to see her every third day, brought her solid books and said very
clever things, could be seized by it, would evidently have been
incomprehensible to her.

He perceived all this, recognized the hopelessness of his concealed
longing, the improbability of ever thawing the ice that surrounded her
like a protecting wall. He had once asked what there was about him to
inspire her, usually so reserved to every one, with so much confidence
in him. She laughed, and shaking her head declared that that was a
secret she intended to keep to herself, and when, contrary to his usual
custom, he pressed her for an answer, she confessed that neither his
honest face, nor anything he had said, had given her the assurance that
he would not abuse her confidence, but--and here she looked at him with
a bewitchingly droll, half timid, half doubtful smile on her face, as
if wondering whether he would take it amiss--the fact that he wore no
gloves, and did not pay any more attention to his dress when he made
the second visit, than when he first called to return her the bookmark.

He laughed, but was obliged to exert considerable self control, to
treat as a jest a matter that was far from being one to him.

He distinctly perceived that she only preferred him because, as a being
belonging to a totally different sphere, she thought him perfectly
harmless. In the seclusion of her life, a visitor who, like him,
brought her amusement without making any special claims, was very
welcome, and the fact that he meantime remained as much a stranger to
her, as she to him, only increased the charm of this intercourse.
Besides, a man who always visited her in the same grey summer suit and
without gloves, was safe from the least suspicion of desiring any
closer relation.

There were moments when he could not help being grateful to her
honesty, for not leaving him in doubt about the impassable gulf between
her worldly desires and n