[A Laodicean by Thomas Hardy]@TWC D-Link bookA Laodicean BOOK THE FIFTH 11/152
Such uneasiness of conscience as arose when he suddenly remembered Dare, and the possibility that Somerset was getting ousted unfairly, had its weight in depressing him; but he was inclined to accept his fortune without much question. The journey to Baden, though short, was not without incidents on which he could work out this curious hobby of cultivating to superlative power an already positive passion.
Handing her in and out of the carriage, accidentally getting brushed by her clothes, of all such as this he made available fuel.
Paula, though she might have guessed the general nature of what was going on, seemed unconscious of the refinements he was trying to throw into it, and sometimes, when in stepping into or from a railway carriage she unavoidably put her hand upon his arm, the obvious insignificance she attached to the action struck him with misgiving. One of the first things they did at Baden was to stroll into the Trink-halle, where Paula sipped the water.
She was about to put down the glass, when De Stancy quickly took it from her hands as though to make use of it himself. 'O, if that is what you mean,' she said mischievously, 'you should have noticed the exact spot.
It was there.' She put her finger on a particular portion of its edge. 'You ought not to act like that, unless you mean something, Miss Power,' he replied gravely. 'Tell me more plainly.' 'I mean, you should not do things which excite in me the hope that you care something for me, unless you really do.' 'I put my finger on the edge and said it was there.' 'Meaning, "It was there my lips touched; let yours do the same."' 'The latter part I wholly deny,' she answered, with disregard, after which she went away, and kept between Charlotte and her aunt for the rest of the afternoon. Since the receipt of the telegram Paula had been frequently silent; she frequently stayed in alone, and sometimes she became quite gloomy--an altogether unprecedented phase for her.
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