ambition, his half-sleepy attitude towards life.

What if the wheels ran so smoothly for him that the latent forces were
never aroused, and little achieved of all that might be?

If love came at his asking, and a sufficiency of success to satisfy an
easy-going nature, what would there ever be to stir depths which she
truly believed were worth stiring? Was it so small a thing to help a
fine soul forward to its best attainment?... was such an aim not worth
some going aside for both?

She felt there were things she could teach him, which without her he
might entirely miss; and if without her he were the better according to
a conventional standard, he might yet be far the poorer in the big,
deep things of life.

Well, no doubt circumstances would end by suiting themselves, with or
without her agency. In the meantime why worry, in a world that it
would seem worked out its own ends, sublimely indifferent to the
individual?

They were going to dine together to-night anyhow; their first tête-à-tête
dinner and evening: time enough to probe and worry when she was more
sure a mutual attraction existed; wiser at present to seek a counter
attraction for her own sake, that she might not uselessly build a
castle without foundations.

Prompt as ever, she reached out for the receiver beside her bed and
rang up the Albany to know if Lord Denton were awake yet.