Miriam gazed, but said nothing.
"Does your silence mean that you can't sympathize with me?"
"No. It means that you have given me a new way of looking at a thing; and I have to think."
She paused; then, with a curious inflection of her voice, as though she were not quite certain of the tone she wished to strike, whether playful or sarcastic:
"You wouldn't prefer me to make an exclamation?"
He laughed.
"Decidedly not. If you were accustomed to do so, I should not be expressing my serious thoughts."
The pleasant mood continued with him, and, a smile still on his face, he asked presently:
"Do you remember telling me that you thought I was wasting my life on futilities?"
Miriam flushed, and for an instant he thought he had offended her. But her reply corrected this impression.