return to Tenth Street she had made up her mind
that there was no menace so great as the menace of Basil Ransom; she had
accepted in thought any arrangement which would deliver her from that.
If the Burrages were to take Verena they would take her from Olive
immeasurably less than he would do; it was from him, from him they would
take her most. She walked back to her boarding-house, and the servant
who admitted her said, in answer to her inquiry as to whether Verena
were at home, that Miss Tarrant had gone out with the gentleman who
called in the morning, and had not yet come in. Olive stood staring; the
clock in the hall marked three.

XXXIII

"Come out with me, Miss Tarrant; come out with me. _Do_ come out with
me." That was what Basil Ransom had been saying to Verena when they
stood where Olive perceived them, in the embrasure of the window. It had
of course taken considerable talk to lead up to this; for the tone, even
more than the words, indicated a large increase of intimacy. Verena was
mindful of this when he spoke; and it frightened her a little, made her
uneasy, which was one of the reasons why she got up from her chair and
went to the window--an inconsequent movement, inasmuch as her wish was
to impress upon him that it was impossible she should comply with his
request. It would have served this end much better for her to sit, very
firmly, in her place. He made her nervous and restless; she was
beginning to perceive that he produced a peculiar effect upon her.
Certainly, she had been out with him at home the very first time he
called upon her; but it seemed to her to make an important difference
that she herself should then have proposed the walk--simply because it
was the easiest thing to do when a person came to see you in Monadnoc
Place.

They had gone out that time because she wanted to, not because he did.
And then it was one thing for her to stroll with him round Cambridge,
where she knew every step and had the confidence and freedom which came
from being on her own ground, and the pretext, which was perfectly
natural, of wanting to show him the colleges, and quite another thing to
go wandering with him through the streets of this great strange city,
which, attractive, delightful as it was, had not the suitableness even
of being his home, not his real one. He wanted to show her something, he
wanted to show her everything; but she was not sure now--after an hour's
talk--that she particularly w