Knowing that a second uninterrupted conversation would be impossible
with her that night, he left the house shortly after, not, however,
before a parting word had assured him that though she still might
disapprove, he would have many future opportunities to plead his
cause, and, furthermore, that she would not risk the loss of his
admiration by relating what she had seen. When he reached his
apartment he exchanged his coat for a smoking-jacket, lit a cigar, and
throwing himself down on a sofa, gave himself up to thoughts of Miss
Penrhyn.

"A strange creature," he mentally announced. "If one can put one's
trust in physiognomy, I should say she had about ten times more in
her than dwells in ordinary women. She has no suspicion of it herself,
however; she will make that discovery later on. I should like to have
the power to render myself invisible; but no, I beg pardon, I should
like to be present in astral body when her nature awakens. I have
always wanted to study the successive psychological evolutions of a
woman in love. Not of the ordinary compound of the domestic and the
fashionable; there is nothing exciting in that; and besides,
our realistic novelists have rendered such researches on my part
superfluous; but of a type, small, but each member of which is built
up of infinite complexities--like this girl. The nature would awaken
with a sudden, mighty shock, not creep toward the light with slow,
well-regulated steps--but, bah! what is the use of indulging in
boneless imaginings? One can never tell what a woman of that sort will
think and feel, until her experience has been a part of his own. And
there is no possibility of my falling in love with her, even did I
wish it, which I certainly do not. The man who fascinates is not the
man who loves. Pardon my modesty, most charming of grandmothers, if