y this because I know there are better things in you, and because I
want you to make the most of your talents. I am anxious to see you put
your powers to something worth while."
Miss Langham's voice carried with it such a tone of sincerity that she
almost succeeded in deceiving herself. And yet she would have hardly
cared to explain just why she had reproached the man before her after
this fashion. For she knew that when she spoke as she had done, she
was beating about to find some reason that would justify her in not
caring for him, as she knew she could care--as she would not allow
herself to care. The man at her side had won her interest from the
first, and later had occupied her thoughts so entirely, that it
troubled her peace of mind. Yet she would not let her feeling for him
wax and grow stronger, but kept it down. And she was trying now to
persuade herself that she did this because there was something lacking
in him and not in her.
She was almost angry with him for being so much to her and for not
being more acceptable in little things, like the other men she knew.
So she found this fault with him in order that she might justify her
own lack of feeling.
But Clay, who only heard the words and could not go back of them to
find the motive, could not know this. He sat perfectly still when she
had finished and looked steadily out across the harbor. His eyes fell
on the ugly ore-pier, and he winced and uttered a short grim laugh.
"That's true, what you say," he began, "I haven't done much. You are
quite right. Only--" he looked up at her curiously and smiled--"only
you should not have been the one to tell me of it."
Miss Langham had been so far carried away by her own point of view that
she had not considered Clay, and now that she saw what mischief she had
done, she gave a quick gasp of regret, and leaned forward as though to
add some explanation to what she had said. But Clay stopped her. "I
mean by that," he said, "that the great part of the inspiration I have
had to do what little I have done came from you. You were a sort of
promise of something better to me. You were more of a type than an
individual woman, but your picture, the one I carry in my watch, meant
all that part of life that I have never known, the sweetness and the
nobleness and grace of civilization,--something I hoped I would some
day have time to enjoy. So you see," he added, with an uncertain
laugh, "it's less pleasant to h
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