“You mean—?”
“There is no need of our being formally engaged. We can go on just as we have until we decide to get married—”
She drew back a little. He put in quickly, “We needn’t even consider that now. We’ll be just friends until the whole matter solves itself.”
“And it will solve itself?” she asked eagerly.
“Yes,” he replied unhesitatingly.
She drew a deep breath. The cage door was even now open.
“Carl,” she whispered honestly, “already I feel less afraid.”
Thus what had appeared to her a very serious problem was settled in five minutes. And it left her not one whit more comfortable. As she thought of it during the day, the very fact of Carl’s acquiescence piqued her. If the matter had been settled after a hearty quarrel she would have felt twice as free. As it was she was under obligations to his good nature if nothing else.
It was at this point that Carl began to lose weight; it was at this point that Eleanor began to realize that in some way Carl had for once misunderstood her. The discontent which oppressed her was by no means based upon such girlish hysteria as they had both supposed. But once at this conclusion she was no better able to analyze her condition than before. Her fretful nights began again and once again she found herself straining towards something bigger and more intangible than had ever before come into her life. She still felt herself caged and this time it was by nothing less distant than the purple rim itself.
She did not discuss this with Carl. She did not mention it even to Aunt Philomela. Alone with herself in the dark she struggled to find meaning in it and as she struggled she discovered herself a wilder more irrational being than she had ever imagined existed.