t danger lay in being questioned: this must be avoided.

But strangely--and its strangeness grew upon her--he did not ask such
questions. He did not seem to have the least interest in her family,
her history, or the object of her journey. He asked where she was
going, a conventional question, perfunctorily put. His remarks all
seemed somewhat conventional. Even these she had sometimes to evade
and direct into other channels; and naturally a conversation, conducted
solely with the idea of concealing her affairs, did not prosper. He
began to say less. Finally he did not talk at all. He simply
listened. His quiet way of waiting for her to continue bore in upon
her as if it were some new quality of silence.

To meet the situation she returned to the subject of her adventure; she
recounted that day's travels with endless inconsequential comment and
explanation. If she paused, he made some obvious observation and
waited. Janet, rather than face awkward pauses, silences which she
could hardly support, would take up her travels again. She talked on
because there seemed no way to stop. His way of waiting for her to
continue seemed quite in keeping with that deliberateness which she had
already noted. What to make of it she did not know. It might be that
he was simply satisfied with the sound of her voice. Or possibly he
had not the least care as to her past or future. Simply disinterest!
This latter feeling--despite the state of affairs was so
desirable--touched her in some deep part of her being.

She told herself he was full of studious design; but whenever he looked
straight at her and repeated her words in his quiet, well-modulated
tones, she found her better judgment softly set aside, and all put in
obeyance [Transcriber's note: abeyance?]. At such times a pleasant
feeling passed over her; all her speculations and apprehensions were
sunk in the atmosphere of his presence. It was a soothing effect, a
personal influence which extended about him and pervaded her part of
the air. As she talked on and on, and he gave her attention, she felt
it more and more, as if she were sitting, not merely in his presence
but within the circle of his being. It was as if, with her eyes shut,
she could have entered his company and felt its atmosphere like
entering a room.

She had not been able to see any way of getting the immediate future
into her own hands. Whenever she thought of bringing the story to an
end, her mi