right now?

CHAPTER XXVIII

The hells of love are bitter and complete. There were days after that
when she watched him, followed him down the pleasant lane from the house
to the water's edge, slipping out unceremoniously after he had gone not
more than eight hundred feet. She watched the bridge at Riverwood at one
and six, expecting that Eugene and his paramour might meet there. It
just happened that Carlotta was compelled to leave town for ten days
with her husband, and so Eugene was safe. On two occasions he went
downtown--into the heart of the great city, anxious to get a breath of
the old life that so fascinated him, and Angela followed him only to
lose track of him quickly. He did nothing evil, however, merely walked,
wondering what Miriam Finch and Christina Channing and Norma Whitmore
were doing these days and what they were thinking of him in his long
absence. Of all the people he had known, he had only seen Norma Whitmore
once and that was not long after he returned to New York. He had given
her a garbled explanation of his illness, stated that he was going to
work now and proposed to come and see her. He did his best to avoid
observation, however, for he dreaded explaining the reason of his
non-productive condition. Miriam Finch was almost glad that he had
failed, since he had treated her so badly. Christina Channing was in
opera, as he quickly discovered, for he saw her name blazoned one day
the following November in the newspapers. She was a star of whose talent
great hopes were entertained, and was interested almost exclusively in
her career. She was to sing in "Boheme" and "Rigoletto."

Another thing, fortunate for Eugene at this time, was that he changed
his work. There came to the shop one day an Irish foreman, Timothy
Deegan, master of a score of "guineas," as he called the Italian day
laborers who worked for him, who took Eugene's fancy greatly. He was of
medium height, thick of body and neck, with a cheerful, healthy red
face, a keen, twinkling gray eye, and stiff, closely cropped gray hair
and mustache. He had come to lay the foundation for a small dynamo in
the engine room at Speonk, which was to supply the plant with light in
case of night work, and a car of his had been backed in, a tool car,
full of boards, barrows, mortar boards, picks and shovels. Eugene was
amused and astonished at his insistent, defiant attitude and the brisk
manner in which he was handing out orders to his men.