use of any
difficulty of establishing himself--be postponed much longer. She said
to him over and over that she could be happy with him in a cottage and
that she so longed to see him again. Eugene began to ask himself what he
wanted to do.

The fact that on the passional side Angela appealed to him more than any
woman he had ever known was a saving point in her favor at this
juncture. There was a note in her make-up which was stronger, deeper,
more suggestive of joy to come than anything he had found elsewhere. He
remembered keenly the wonderful days he had spent with her--the one
significant night when she begged him to save her against herself. All
the beauty of the season with which she was surrounded at that time; the
charm of her family, the odor of flowers and the shade of trees served
to make a setting for her delightfulness which still endured with him as
fresh as yesterday. Now, without having completed that romance--a very
perfect flower--could he cast it aside?

At this time he was not entangled with any woman. Miriam Finch was too
conservative and intellectual; Norma Whitmore not attractive enough. As
for some other charming examples of femininity whom he had met here and
there, he had not been drawn to them or they to him. Emotionally he was
lonely and this for him was always a very susceptible mood. He could not
make up his mind that the end had come with Angela.

It so happened that Marietta, after watching her sister's love affair
some time, reached the conclusion that she ought to try to help her.
Angela was obviously concealing a weariness of heart which was telling
on her peace of mind and her sweetness of disposition. She was unhappy
and it grieved her sister greatly. The latter loved her in a
whole-hearted way, in spite of the fact that their affections might
possibly have clashed over Eugene, and she thought once of writing in a
sweet way and telling him how things were. She thought he was good and
kind, that he loved Angela, that perhaps he was delaying as her sister
said until he should have sufficient means to marry well, and that if
the right word were said now he would cease chasing a phantom fortune
long enough to realize that it were better to take Angela while they
were still young, than to wait until they were so old that the romance
of marriage would for them be over. She revolved this in her mind a long
time, picturing to herself how sweet Angela really was, and finally
nerved herself