She was most ingenious in
arranging these meetings. They were together afternoons and evenings. They
were often alone. Yet she was careful not to violate any convention, always
to keep, or seem to be keeping, one foot "on the line." Howard threw
himself into his infatuation with all his power of concentration He
practically took a month's holiday from the office. He thought about her
incessantly. He used all his skill with words in making love to her. And
she abandoned herself to an equal infatuation with equal absorption.
Neither of them spoke of the past or the future. They lived in the present,
talked of the present.
One day she spoke of herself as an orphan.
"I did not know that," he said. "But then what do I know about you in
relation to the rest of the world? To me you are an isolated act of
creation."
"You must tell me about yourself." She was looking at him, surprised. "Why,
I know nothing at all about you."
"Oh, yes, you do. You know all that there is to know--all that is
important."
"What?" She was asking for the pleasure of hearing him say it.
"That I love you--you--all of you--all of you, with all of me."
Her eyes answered for her lips, which only said smilingly: "No, we haven't
time to get acquainted--at least not to-day.
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