“I was staring at you,” he admitted, with disconcerting directness.
“Well, of all things!... Why?”
“Because,” he said, “you present an interesting problem.”
“Indeed!... What problem, if you please?”
There was no trace of self-consciousness in his answer. It was direct, not made with humorous intent, nor as a man of the world might have uttered similar words. It issued from profound depths of ignorance of life and of the customs and habits of life.
“I find,” he said, “that I think about you a great deal. Yes.... I find my thoughts taken up with you at most inopportune moments. I am even able to visualize you. Very queer. Only last evening, when I should have been otherwise occupied, I suddenly aroused myself to find I had been giving you minute consideration for half an hour. I may even say that I derived a certain pleasure from the exercise. It was startling, if I may use so strong a word. Doubtless there is some cause for such a mental phenomenon.... Will you believe me, Miss Lee, I was perfectly able to see you as if you were in the room with me. I watched you move about. I could see the changing expressions upon your face.... And when I realized how I was frittering away my time, and set about resolutely to take up the business in hand, I could do so only with the greatest difficulty. Actually, I did so with regret, and thereafter found concentration extremely difficult.... Therefore I have been sitting here, studying you with the utmost care to discover, if I can, the reason for these things.”
“And have you discovered it?” Carmel asked, a trifle breathlessly.
He shook his head. “Undoubtedly you are pleasing to the eye,” he said, “but I must have encountered other people who are equally pleasing. I must confess to being at a loss for an answer.”
Carmel experienced a wave of sympathy. She hoped he would never discover the cause of the phenomenon, and fancied it quite likely he would never comprehend it. Mingled with her sympathy was a sense of guilt. She reviewed her conduct toward Evan Pell and could discover no action on her part which justified a feeling of guilt, yet it persisted. This queer, pedantic, crackling man was attracted to her, was, perhaps, on the verge of falling in love with her.... He was coming to life! She paused to wonder what sort of man he would be if he really came to life; if he sloughed off his shell of pedantry and stood disclosed without disguise. Perhaps it would be good for him to fall in love, no matter how vainly. It might be unpleasant for both of them, but, she determined, if he did find out what ailed him, she would be patient and gentle with him and see to it the hurt she would inflict should be as slight as she could make it.... It is to be noted her mind was already made up. Evan had no chance whatever. Already she had refused him, kindly, gently, but firmly.... It was upsetting.
“Probably,” she said, with an artificial laugh, “it is something you have eaten.”