Krylenko regarded her quizzically. “But he is rich.... Don’t rich women marry rich men?” And he finished with a puzzled grunt of inquiry.
“Yes,” replied Lily. “It’s because I’m rich that I wouldn’t marry him.” It must have occurred to her then how wide was the chasm which separated her world from Krylenko’s. Still he failed to understand.
“That’s no reason,” she continued, “for marrying him ... a poor thing like that.”
She sat down and drew her chair quite close to the rosewood sofa, laughing at the same time. Clearly the whole adventure struck her as bizarre, ridiculous ... even unreal. Yet she trembled as if she were shivering with cold, and her laugh carried a vague hint of hysteria. She leaned forward and began to stroke his aching head gently.
After a long awkward pause, she said, “Miss Irene will be home any time now.”
“Yes.” And Krylenko gave a sort of grunt. Unmistakably there was a crudeness about him. He was gauche, awkward; yet there was in his manner a quality of power, of domination which had its origin somewhere in the dim ages, when there were no drawing-rooms and no books of etiquette. He had a manifest self-possession. He did not become obsequious before this great lady as Judge Weissman and other men in stations beneath her had done. He treated her, after all, as his equal. He was even a little arrogant; a trifle scornful of her wealth.
“Miss Irene,” he observed presently, “is a noble woman. You understand she gives up her life to my people. Do you know where she is now?” His voice was raised, his manner excited. “She’s looking after the fellows that got hurt. There was a woman, too. I saw her ... shot through the arm.... Ah, Miss Irene is a saint. You know she could go anywhere in the Flats. No one would touch her.”
The whole speech was touched with a tone of simple adoration. The essence of him was a great, a really profound simplicity.
“She works hard,” said Lily. “She works hard. She cares for nothing else.” By the watch on her white wrist it was midnight. “So that is why she is late,” she added.
“There will be much work for her to-night,” said Krylenko. He kept watching Lily in the same furtive fashion, his gaze wandering to the lovely line of her bare white throat.