“Are you not feverish?” he asked, alarmed at the hotness of her hand and her flushed cheeks.
“Perhaps,” indifferently. “Professor, tell me”—she stopped and continued more slowly. “What is your opinion of Julian Barclay?” Norcross hesitated, and she added proudly, “I desire the truth.”
“Very well,” Norcross looked at her compassionately. “On first meeting Julian Barclay I thought him a pleasant, agreeable companion,”—he was picking his words with care. “A man who might have achieved considerable success in whatever he undertook, had not a comfortable income deprived him of the necessity and spur to apply himself to work.”
“And you think now—?” suggested Ethel, as he paused.
“Too much idleness is the curse of many American men,” he said. “If they cannot find a proper outlet for their energies, and there comes a time when idleness palls, they are apt to turn to unwise occupations and corrupt associates. Such, I fear, is the case with Julian Barclay.”
Ethel covered her eyes as if to shut out the glare of the droplight electric lamp by which they were sitting, and Norcross reaching over, switched it off. In the light thrown out by the open fire on the hearth he could see Ethel fairly distinctly, and he frowned as he detected the effect of her sleepless night. The light and shadow of the room, the high-backed brocaded chair in which she sat, her perfectly fitted, simple evening gown, made a quaint picture, and Norcross’ bottled-up indignation found vent in a muttered curse. It seemed criminal that a man of Julian Barclay’s caliber should have it within his power to cause her suffering.
Ethel, suddenly conscious of the silence, dropped her hand from before her eyes, and glanced at Norcross. She found his pleasant face set in grim lines.
“Go on,” she begged. “You were saying——”
“Idleness, money, no home ties, and the Far East are a bad combination,” he responded gravely. “Barclay seldom speaks of the years he has spent in the Orient; in fact, he leads one to infer that he knows little about it. That first prejudiced me against him, for I had heard—” he did not finish his sentence.
“You had heard”—prompted Ethel.