have wished to go there, he felt sure; there was too much pride in the girl's whole bearing and in her eyes to permit the suggestion that she would ever accept any patronage, especially from such a source; but nevertheless, any contact with Mrs. Walters must necessarily be humiliating to a girl of her spirit; and to compass such an interview looked to be about the most unlikely task which could possibly be conceived.
However, he set his wits to the problem of trying to evolve some suggestion of a first step in the desired direction, but nothing in the way of a plausible course could he work out. Obviously, the first move should be to establish some sort of an acquaintance, or at least, an exchange of courtesies, with the girl; but how to bring it about seemed to be entirely beyond the scope of his thinking apparatus. There was no place to begin. He could not even start with a clean slate; for in the light of the revelations of Mrs. Sands, his blunder had been even more egregious than he could possibly have dreamed. Unintentional though it so manifestly was, yet the memory of it would serve as a barrier between them, which was beyond all likelihood of breaking down. Still, he had promised to make the effort, and therefore he was going to be alert for every smallest opportunity; but he was not at all sanguine of success.
And meantime his typewriter made inconsequent
