pretty, too, yet hers was not the banal, conventional beauty of every day, but something fresher, more fascinating, more lovable, an indefinable, elusive charm that kept him guessing, yet always accompanied by a quiet dignity that compelled respect.  Instead of flirting with him or giving him any encouragement, as girls of her class often did, she studiously avoided his gaze, seeming not to know he was there, serenely indifferent as to whether he came or went.  Accustomed as he—­the wealthy bachelor—­was to see girls literally throw themselves at him, it was a new experience to find himself apparently of so little account, and this; perhaps as much as anything else, made him all the more determined to force himself upon her attention.

Apart from this, Virginia aroused the man’s sensuality, excited his imagination.  It seemed to him that a girl of her impressionable nature, artistic temperament, intellectual aloofness, once her ardor was awakened would love more passionately than a woman of commoner clay; her caresses, it seemed to him, would have greater zest than those of a woman more obviously carnal.  Never, in the years during which he had sown his wild oats, having learned how to control his appetites, nor in his career as a rich man about town, learned to respect woman or see in her anything else but an instrument of pleasure, it was not surprising that he looked at Virginia with eyes of lust.  Apart from her spirituality which interested him, she also appealed to him physically and with the craving of an epicure, ever seeking some gastronomic novelty wherewith to gratify his jaded palate, he determined to awaken her virginal emotions and find out in what way they differed from those of other women.

He set to work to win her, taking the same keen pleasure in the pastime as does a sportsman at the hunt.  He realized that it would not be easy, and vaguely he foresaw failure, but the difficulties of the task only served to spur him on to make the attempt.  He began the campaign of fascination tactfully, diplomatically, careful not to offend, avoiding anything likely to excite her resentment or arouse her fears.  He lent her books, gave her tickets for concerts and picture exhibitions, tried in every way to break down the barrier of haughty reserve with which she had surrounded herself and gain her confidence.

Virginia appreciated these attentions, and the well-bred ease with which she accepted them only made the would-be lover’s campaign the more difficult.  In fact, her very frankness and candor made it impossible, and finally disarmed him altogether, leaving him feeling very much ashamed of himself.  Stafford was not a scoundrel at heart.  He had gone into the game just for the sport, as many men of his class and opportunities had done before him, carelessly, thoughtlessly, and without fully realizing that he was committing a crime.  And now that she had gone through the fire unscathed, he was more in love with her than ever.  What a fool, what an unspeakable cad he had been to even think of her in that way!