For an hour or more that evening ! listened to his monotonouschirrupabout bad money driving out good, the token value of silver,the deprecia-tion of the rupee, and the true standards ofexchange.
Suppose,he cried, with feeble violence, 'that all the debts intheworld were called up simultaneously and immediate paymentinsistedupon. What, under our present conditions, would happenthen?
I gave the self-evident answer that I should be a ruined man,uponwhich he jumped from his chair, reproved me my habitual levity,whichmade it impossible for him to discuss any reasonable subjectin my presence,and bounced off out of the room to dress for aMasonic meeting.
At last I was alone with Gladys, and the moment of fate had come!All that evening I had felt like the soldier who awaits the signalwhich willsend him on a forlom hope, hope of victory and fear ofrepulse alternatingin his mind.
She sat with that proud, delicate profile of hers outlined againstthe redcurtain. How beautiful she was! And yet how aloofl We hadbeen friends,quite good friends; but never could I get beyond thesame comradeshipwhich I might have established with one of myfellow-reporters upon theGazette——perfectly frank, perfectlykindly, and perfectly unsexual. Myinstincts are all against a womanbeing too frank and at her ease with me.It is no compliment to aman. Where the real sex feeling begins, timidityand distrust areits companions, heritage from old wicked days when loveand violencewent often hand in hand.