Edith was bending over the table, collecting the loose sheets of manuscript.

The sunlight had turned her hair almost to the color of flame.

Against the background of the open window, her slim, delicate figure, clad in a fashionable mist of lace and muslin, seemed to him like some wonderful piece of intensely modern statuary.

Between them the professor sat, with his arms still folded, a benevolent yet pensive smile upon his lips..