The puritanism of Wichita (modified sometime since by the art life of Chicago, such as it was) was having a severe struggle with the manipulative subtlety of the ages--represented in this man.
"You know you are very elusive," he said to her one evening at the theater when he sat behind her during the entr'acte, and Harold and Aileen had gone to walk in the foyer.

The hubbub of conversation drowned the sound of anything that might be said.

Mrs.Sohlberg was particularly pleasing in a lacy evening gown.
"No," she replied, amusedly, flattered by his attention and acutely conscious of his physical nearness.

By degrees she had been yielding herself to his mood, thrilling at his every word.

"It seems to me I am very stable," she went on.