She did not answer his question until she had shrunk completely within herself and was again thickly veiled with the expression which made everyone think her insignificant.  “Nothing I could afford to do,” said she.  It was plain that she did not wish to be questioned further along that line.

“The stage?” he persisted.

“I hadn’t thought of it,” was her answer.

“What then?”

“I don’t think about things I can’t have.  I never made any definite plans.”

“But isn’t it a good idea always to look ahead?  As long as one has to be moving, one might as well move in a definite direction.”

She was waiting with pencil poised.

“There isn’t much of a future at this business.”

She shrank slightly.  He felt that she regarded his remark as preparation for a kindly hint that she was not giving satisfaction. . . .  Well, why not leave it that way?  Perhaps she would quit of her own accord—­would spare him the trouble—­and embarrassment—­of arranging with Tetlow for another place for her.  He began to dictate—­gave her a few sentences mockingly different from his usual terse and clear statements—­interrupted himself with: 

“You misunderstood me a while ago.  I didn’t mean you weren’t doing your work well.  On the contrary, I think you’ll soon be expert.  But I thought perhaps I might be able to help you to something you’d like better.”

He listened to his own words in astonishment.  What new freak of madness was this?  Instead of clearing himself of this uncanny girl, he was proposing things to her that would mean closer relations.  And what reason had he to think she was fitted for anything but just what she was now doing—­doing indifferently well?

“Thank you,” she said, so quietly that it seemed coldly, “but I’m satisfied as I am.”

Her manner seemed to say with polite and restrained plainness that she was not in the least appreciative of his interest or of himself.  But this could not be.  No girl in her position could fail to be grateful for his interest.  No woman, in all his life, had ever failed to respond to his slightest advance.  No, it simply could not be.  She was merely shy, and had a peculiar way of showing it.  He said: 

“You have no ambition?”

“That’s not for a woman.”

She was making her replies as brief as civility permitted.  He observed her narrowly.  She was not shy, not embarrassed.  What kind of game was this?  It could not be in sincere nature for a person in her position thus to treat overtures, friendly and courteous overtures, from one in his position.  And never before—­never—­had a woman been thus unresponsive.  Instead of feeling relief that she had disentangled him from the plight into which his impulsive offer had flung him, he was piqued—­angered—­and his curiosity was inflamed as never before about any woman.