There were times when Cecily, her look and utterance, visited him very clearly; but this was when he did not wish to be reminded of her.

If he endeavoured to make her present, as a rule the picturing faculty was irresponsive.
Welcome reverie! If only he could continue to busy himself with idle speculation concerning the strange young Puritan, and so find relief from the anguish that beset him.

Suppose now, he set himself to imagine Miriam in unlikely situations.

What if she somehow fell into poverty, was made absolutely dependent on her own efforts?
Suppose she suffered cruelly what so many women have to suffer--toil, oppression, solitude; what would she become?
Not, he suspected, a meek martyr; anything but that, Miriam Baske.

And how magnificent to see her flash out into revolt against circumstances! Then indeed she would be interesting.
Nay, suppose she fell in love--desperately, with grim fate against her?
For somehow this came more easily to the fancy than the thought of her loving obstacle.