“Foolish!  Well, he is unlike Richard Graveling and the others, unlike us.  Why not?  He is cultivated, educated, well-dressed.”

The youth, for a moment, was aghast.

“You don’t mean—­that he is a gentleman?”

“Not in the sense you fear,” she assured him.  “Remember that his work is more far-reaching than ours.  It takes him everywhere; he must be fit for everything.  Sit down now, dear Aaron.  You are tired.  See, my morning tea is ready, and there is bread and butter.  You must eat and drink.  Maraton you will surely see later in the day.  I do not think that he will disappoint you.”

Aaron sat down at the table.  He ate and drank ravenously.  He was, in fact, half starved but barely conscious of it.

“He spoke of the great things?”

Julia shook her head.  She was busy cutting bread and butter.

“Scarcely at all.  What chance was there?  And then Richard Graveling came.”

“They were friends?  They took to one another?” the young man asked eagerly.

She hesitated.

“I am not sure about that.  Graveling was in one of his tempers.  He was rude, and he said things to me which I felt obliged to contradict.”

“They did not quarrel?”

She laughed softly.

“Imagine Maraton quarrelling!  I think that he is above such pettiness, Aaron.”

“Graveling is a good fellow and a hard worker,” Aaron declared.  “The one thing which he lacks is enthusiasm.  He doesn’t really feel.  He does his work well because it is his work, not because of what it leads to.”

“You are right,” Julia admitted.  “He has no enthusiasm.  That is why he never moves people when he speaks.  I must go soon, Aaron.  Will you lie down and rest for a time here?”

“Rest!” He looked at her scornfully.  “How can one rest!  Tell me where this house of his is?  I shall go and wait outside.  I must see him.”

She glanced at the clock, and paused for a moment to think.

“Aaron,” she decided, “I will be late for once.  Come with me and I will take you to him.  He was kind to me last night.  We will go together to his house and wait till he is down.  Then I will tell him how you have longed for his coming, and perhaps—­”

“Perhaps what?” Aaron interrupted.  “You can’t escape from it!  You have promised.  You shall take me!  I am ready to go.  Perhaps what?”

“I was only thinking,” she went on, “you find it, I know, impossible to settle down to work anywhere.  But with him, if he could find something—­”

Aaron sprang to his feet.

“I would work my fingers to the bone!” he cried.  “It is a glorious idea, Julia.  I have to give up the collecting—­my bicycle has gone.  Let us start.”

They went out together into the streets, thinly peopled, as yet, for it was barely six o’clock.  Julia would have loitered, but her brother forced her always onward.  She laughed as they arrived at the Square where Maraton lived.  Every house they passed was shuttered and silent.