Their talks
were always broken off too soon, just when she began to get a
glimpse of characteristics still unknown to her. On the journey she
thought constantly of him; not with any sort of tender emotion, but
with much curiosity. It would have gratified her to know what degree
of truth there was in that rumour of his engagement a month ago;
some, undoubtedly, for she had noticed a peculiar smile on the faces
of persons who alluded to it. His apparent coldness towards women in
general might be natural, or might conceal mysteries. So difficult a
man to know! And so impossible to decide whether he was really worth
knowing!
Among intimates of her own sex Irene had a reputation for a certain
chaste severity becoming at moments all but prudery. It did not
altogether harmonise with the tone of highly taught young women who
rather prided themselves on freedom of thought, and to some extent
of utterance. Singular in one so far from cold-blooded, so abounding
in vitality. Towards men, her attitude seemed purely intellectual;
no one had ever so much as suspected a warmer interest. A hint of
things forbidden with regard to any male acquaintance caused her to
turn away, silent, austere. That such things not seldom came to her
hearing was a motive of troubled reflection, common enough in all
intelligent girls who live in touch with the wider world. Men
puzzled her, and Irene did not like to be puzzled.
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