There was no one, I mean, to tell me about the republic of the spirit." "There never is--it's a country one has to find the way to one's self." "But I should never have found my way there if you hadn't told me." "Ah, there are sign-posts--but one has to know how to read them." "Well, I have known, I have known!" she cried with a glow of eagerness.
"Whenever I see you, I find myself spelling out a letter of the sign--and yesterday--last evening at dinner--I suddenly saw a little way into your republic." Selden was still looking at her, but with a changed eye.

Hitherto he had found, in her presence and her talk, the aesthetic amusement which a reflective man is apt to seek in desultory intercourse with pretty women.
His attitude had been one of admiring spectatorship, and he would have been almost sorry to detect in her any emotional weakness which should interfere with the fulfilment of her aims.

But now the hint of this weakness had become the most interesting thing about her.

He had come on her that morning in a moment of disarray; her face had been pale and altered, and the diminution of her beauty had lent her a poignant charm.
THAT IS HOW SHE LOOKS WHEN SHE IS ALONE! had been his first thought; and the second was to note in her the change which his coming produced.

It was the danger-point of their intercourse that he could not doubt the spontaneity of her liking.