o. Surely--he asked himself angrily
he was not still so much in the thraldom of conventionality as to be
affected by his fresh reminder of her position and antecedents? Perhaps
not quite so much prejudice as experience which disturbed him. He was
well acquainted with the characteristics of girls of this class; he
knew how all but impossible it is for them to tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth. And there was one thing particularly
in Ida's story that he found hard to credit; was it indeed likely that
she had not felt more than she would confess for this man whose
mistress she became so easily? If she had _not_, if what she said were
true, was not this something like a proof of her lack of that refined
sentiment which is, the capacity for love, in its real sense? Torturing
doubts and reasonings of this kind once set going in a brain already
confused with passion, there is no limit to the range of speculation
opened; Waymark found himself--in spite of everything--entertaining all
his old scepticism. In any case, had he the slightest ground for the
hope that she might ever feel to him as warmly as he did to her? He
could not recall one instance of Ida's having betrayed a trace of
fondness in her intercourse with him. The mere fact of their
intercourse he altogether lost sight of. Whereas an outsider would,
under the circumstances, have been justified in laying the utmost
stress on this, Waymark had grown to accept it as a matter of course,
and only occupied himself with Ida's absolute self-control, her perfect
calmness in all situations, the ease with which she met his glance, the
looseness of her hand in his, the indifference with which she heard him
when he had spoken of his loneliness and frequent misery. Where was the
key of her character? She did not care for admiration; it was quite
certain that she was not leading him about just to gratify her own
vanity. Was it not purely an intellectual matter? She was a girl of
superior intellect, and, having found in him some one with whom she
could satisfy her desire for rational converse, did she not on this
account keep up their relations? For the rest--well, she liked ease and
luxury; above all, ease. Of that she would certainly make no sacrifice.
How well he could imagine the half-annoyed, half-contemptuous smile
which would rise to her beautiful face, if he were so foolish as to
become sentimental with her! That, he felt, would be a look not easy to
b