It would certainly have been better, at the outset, he decided; but to mention it now would be to invest the fact with undue importance.

Yes, that was quite clear; only the clearer it became, from one point of view, the shadier it waxed from the other.
The problem really disturbed the young minister's mind throughout the meal, and his abstraction became so marked at last that his wife commented upon it.
"A penny for your thoughts!" she said, with cheerful briskness.

This ancient formula of the farm-land had always rather jarred on Theron.

It presented itself now to his mind as a peculiarly aggravating banality.
"I am going to begin my book this afternoon," he remarked impressively.
"There is a great deal to think about." It turned out that there was even more to think about than he had imagined.

After hours of solitary musing at his desk, or of pacing up and down before his open book-shelves, Theron found the first shadows of a May-day twilight beginning to fall upon that beautiful pile of white paper, still unstained by ink.