Moreover, though he had thought of writing to her, it would in reality have cost him nothing if she had forthwith passed out of his sight and knowledge.

Now how all this had been altered, by a mere chance meeting.

The doubts had left him; she was indeed the being from a higher world that he would have liked to believe her from the first; the mysterious note of true sympathy had been struck in that short exchange of words and looks, and, though they had taken leave of each other for who could say how long, mutual knowledge was just beginning, real intercourse about to be established between them.

He might write to her, and of course she would reply.
He walked without much perception of time or distance, and found himself at home just before nightfall.

He felt disposed for a quiet evening, to be spent in the companionship of his thoughts.