of the clock spring sounded once more, followed by the slow,
increasing strokes ... Again. His body wavered, on the verge of sleep,
and he straightened himself sharply; then he rose and, putting back the
Forgebook, undressed.

Susan, at breakfast, her shoulders wrapped in a serious-toned pelerine,
said little. Jasper Penny instinctively excluded her from a trivial
conversation. She was, he decided, paler than usual, the shadows under
her eyes were indigo. He was filled with self-condemnation. Mrs. Penny,
gazing at her with a beady discernment, asked if her rest had been
interrupted. "I am always an indifferent sleeper," Susan Brundon replied
evasively. He followed her into the carriage that was to take her to the
station at Jaffa; and, ignoring her slight gasp of protest, grasped the
reins held by the negro coachman. However, they proceeded over the short
distance to the town without speech. 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. He searched within for what might bend, influence,
her, for whatever he might have of value in her eyes. He found nothing.
It was a novel and painful experience; and it bred in him a certain
anger; he became merely stubborn. He declared to himself, with an oath,
that he would gain her; and he pulled u