It was somewhat humiliating that he, who had seen the
world, especially in its social aspects, should be perplexed by a
young girl scarcely twenty, and that this girl of all others should
be little Madge. He had intimated that she had become imbued with
sentimentality and aspirations after ideals, and was hoping to meet
a male embodiment of these traits, which he regarded as prominently
lackadaisical. Her merry and half ironical laugh was not the natural
response of a woman of the intense and aesthetic type.
"I don't understand her yet," he admitted; and he again assured
himself that it was not necessary that he should. She had not merely
drifted away from him, but had deliberately chosen that others should
guide and help in the new development. The thing for him to do now was
to secure the girl of his heart, who was not shrouded in mystery. It
was evident that Mr. Arnault had been an urgent suitor, and that she
was not already engaged to him proved, as he believed, that she had
been under the influence of a restraint readily explained by her more
than manner toward himself. "She will have to choose between us soon,"
he thought. "She understands us both, and her heart will soon give its
final verdict, if it has not already done so.
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