Hurstwood, being an older man, could scarcely be said to retain
the fire of youth, though he did possess a passion warm and
unreasoning. It was strong enough to induce the leaning toward
him which, on Carrie's part, we have seen. She might have been
said to be imagining herself in love, when she was not. Women
frequently do this. It flows from the fact that in each exists a
bias toward affection, a craving for the pleasure of being loved.
The longing to be shielded, bettered, sympathised with, is one of
the attributes of the sex. This, coupled with sentiment and a
natural tendency to emotion, often makes refusing difficult. It
persuades them that they are in love.

Once at home, she changed her clothes and straightened the rooms
for herself. In the matter of the arrangement of the furniture
she never took the housemaid's opinion. That young woman
invariably put one of the rocking-chairs in the corner, and
Carrie as regularly moved it out. To-day she hardly noticed that
it was in the wrong place, so absorbed was she in her own
thoughts. She worked about the room until Drouet put in
appearance at five o'clock. The drummer was flushed and excited
and full of determination to know all about her relations with
Hurstwood. Nevertheless, after going over the subject in his
mind the livelong day, he was rather weary of it and wished it
over with. He did not foresee serious consequences of any sort,
and yet he rather hesitated to begin. Carrie was sitting by the
window when he came in, rocking and looking out.
"Well," she said innocently, weary of her own mental discussion
and wondering at his haste and ill-concealed excitement, "what
makes you hurry so?"