whatever of following the man who had left Arles with such boorish
brusqueness, without even the conventional good-bye at the
breakfast-table. She had come to Nîmes because she was a worker, because
this town contained special material necessary to her bread-winning.

She had guessed that Rivière's hurried departure from Arles was made in
order to avoid meeting her. It hurt. Woman-like, she set more value on a
few pleasant words of farewell over a breakfast-table and a warm
handshake than on a defence from assault at the risk of a man's life.
The seeming illogicality of woman is of course a mere surface illusion.
It hides a train of reasoning very different to a man's. It is a mental
short-cut like an Irishman's "bull," which condenses a whole chain of
thought into a single link.

In this case Elaine knew that Rivière's rescue held no personal
significance. He did not know at the time that it was _she_ who was
being attacked. He would have gone to the defence of any woman under
similar circumstances. While altruism appealed to her strongly in a
broad, general way, it did not appeal when it came home in such a
specific, individual fashion.

On the other hand, a warm handshake at the breakfast-table would have
its personal significance. It would be a homage to herself, and not to
women in general. Its value would lie in its personal meaning.

While she knew this thought was ungenerous, yet at the same time she
knew that behind it there lay a sound basis of reason.

Her pride--that form of pride which is a very wholesome
self-respect--made her flush at the thought that Rivière would see her