Starting from his chair, Jasper Wald went to the side of the desk and leaned far out of the window. A wave of heat came up to him from the earth. His eyes stared intently at the window opposite.
The door behind him was thrown open. He turned to see Ellen's tall, not ungraceful, figure standing in the doorway. Her two hands grasped the bowl of a lighted lamp.
"I don't need that."
Jasper Wald told it to her impatiently.
She came a step into the room.
"It's dark in here, Jasper."
"But I don't need any more light, Ellen. I don't need it, I tell you!"
"It's dark in here, Jasper."
"All right, then; put the thing down. I can't take up my time arguing with you. How can a man write in a place like this, anyway? Have you no consideration? Must I always be disturbed? Have you no respect for genius?"
She came a step further toward the center of the room.