You would have nothing to
fear from any admiration on my part--or anything of that sort,"
he added, with some show of clumsiness. "Those things do not
come in my life. I am ambitious to get on, to succeed and become
wealthy. Other things I do not even think about."
She was speechless. After a short pause, he went on.
"I am proposing this arrangement as much for my own sake as for
yours. I am very well read and I know most of what there is to
be known in my profession. But there are other things concerning
which I am ignorant. Some of these things I believe you could
teach me."
Still speechless, she sat and looked at him for several moments.
Outside, the station now was filled with a hurrying throng on
their way to the day's work. Engines were shrieking, bells
ringing, the press of footsteps was unceasing. In the dark, ill-
ventilated room itself there was the rattle of crockery, the
yawning of discontented-looking young women behind the bar, young
women with their hair still in curl-papers, as yet unprepared for
their weak little assaults upon the good-nature or susceptibility
of their customers. A queer corner of life it seemed. She
looked at her companion and realized how fragmentary was her
knowledge of him. There was nothing to be gathered from his
face. He seemed to have no expression. He was simply waiting
for her reply, with his thoughts already half engrossed upon the
business of the day.
"Really," she began, "I--"
He came back from his momentary wandering and looked at her.
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