For several days nothing seemed to be happening, though Larry had a sense that unknown forces were gathering on distant isothermal lines and bad weather was bearing down upon him.

During these days, trying to ignore that formless trouble, he gave himself with a most rigid determination to his new routine--the routine which he counted on to help him into the way of great things.
Every day he saw Maggie; sometimes he was in her company for an hour or more.

He had the natural hunger of a young man to talk to a young woman; and, moreover, it is a severe strain for a man to be living under the same roof with the girl he loves and not to be on terms of friendship with her.

But Maggie maintained her aloofness.

She spoke only when she was pressed into it, and her speech was usually no more than a "yes" or a "no," or a flashing phrase of disdain.
At times Larry had the feeling that, for all her repression, Maggie would have been glad to be more free with him.