 took in immediately
the creased trousers and the certain slight but indefinable change in him for
the better. Also, she was struck by his face. It was almost violent, this health
of his, and it seemed to rush out of him and at her in waves of force. She felt
the urge again of the desire to lean toward him for warmth, and marvelled again
at the effect his presence produced upon her. And he, in turn, knew again the
swimming sensation of bliss when he felt the contact of her hand in greeting.
The difference between them lay in that she was cool and self-possessed while
his face flushed to the roots of the hair. He stumbled with his old awkwardness
after her, and his shoulders swung and lurched perilously.
    Once they were seated in the living-room, he began to get on easily - more
easily by far than he had expected. She made it easy for him; and the gracious
spirit with which she did it made him love her more madly than ever. They talked
first of the borrowed books, of the Swinburne he was devoted to, and of the
Browning he did not understand; and she led the conversation on from subject to
subject, while she pondered the problem of how she could be of help to him. She
had thought of this often since their first meeting. She wanted to help him. He
made a call upon her pity and tenderness that no one had ever made before, and
the pity was not so much derogatory of him as maternal in her. Her pity could
not be of the common sort, when the man who drew it was so much man as to shock
her with maidenly fears and set her mind and pulse thrilling with strange
thoughts and feelings. The old fascination of his neck was there, and there was
sweetness in the thought of laying her hands upon it. It seemed still a wanton
impulse, but she had grown more used to it. She did not dream that in such guise
new-born love would epitomize itself. Nor did she dream that the feeling he
excited in her was love. She thought she was merely interested in him as an
unusual type possessing various potential excellencies, and she even felt
philanthropic about it.
    She did not know she desired him; but with him it was different. He knew
that he loved her, and he desired her as he had never before desired anything in
his life. He had loved poetry for beauty's sake; but since he met her the gates
to the vast field of love-poetry had been opened wide. She
