dingly pretty,
too, yet hers was not the banal, conventional beauty of every day, but
something fresher, more fascinating, more lovable, an indefinable,
elusive charm that kept him guessing, yet always accompanied by a
quiet dignity that compelled respect. Instead of flirting with him or
giving him any encouragement, as girls of her class often did, she
studiously avoided his gaze, seeming not to know he was there,
serenely indifferent as to whether he came or went. Accustomed as
he--the wealthy bachelor--was to see girls literally throw themselves
at him, it was a new experience to find himself apparently of so
little account, and this, perhaps as much as anything else, made him
all the more determined to force himself upon her attention.

Apart from this, Virginia aroused the man's sensuality, excited his
imagination. It seemed to him that a girl of her impressionable
nature, artistic temperament, intellectual aloofness, once her ardor
was awakened would love more passionately than a woman of commoner
clay; her caresses, it seemed to him, would have greater zest than
those of a woman more obviously carnal. Never, in the years during
which he had sown his wild oats, having learned how to control his
appetites, nor in his career as a rich man about town, learned to
respect woman or see in her anything else but an instrument of
pleasure, it was not surprising that he looked at Virginia with eyes
of lust. Apart from her spirituality which interested him, she also
appealed to him physically and with the craving of an epicure, ever
seeking some gastronomic novelty wherewith to gratify his jaded
palate, he determined to awaken her virginal emotions and find out in
what way they differed from those of other women.

He set to work to win her, taking the same keen pleasure in the
pastime as does a sportsman at the hunt. He realized that it would not
be easy, and vaguely he foresaw failure, but the difficulties of the
task only served to spur him on to make the attempt. He began the
campaign of fascination tactfully, diplomatically, careful not to
offend, avoiding anything likely to excite her resentment or arouse
her fears. He lent her books, gave her tickets for concerts and
picture exhibitions, tried in every way to break down the barrier of
haughty reserve with which she had surrounded herself and gain her
confidence.

Virginia appreciated these attentions, and the well-bred ease with
which she accepted them only made th