on in Boston, whence she
could send some of her wages home: and in the morning, as she made
her way to the office, the determination gave her a sense of peace and
unity. But the northwest wind was blowing. It had chased away the
mist and the clouds, the smoke from Canada. The sun shone with a high
brilliancy, the elms of the Common cast sharp, black shadow-patterns
on the pavements, and when she reached the office and looked out of his
window she saw the blue river covered with quicksilver waves chasing
one another across the current. Ditmar had not yet returned to Hampton.
About ten o'clock, as she was copying out some figures for Mr. Price,
young Mr. Caldwell approached her. He had a Boston newspaper in his
hand.

"Have you seen this article about Mr. Ditmar?" he asked.

"About Mr. Ditmar? No."

"It's quite a send-off for the Colonel," said Caldwell, who was wont at
times to use the title facetiously. "Listen; 'One of the most notable
figures in the Textile industry of the United States, Claude Ditmar,
Agent of the Chippering Mill.'" Caldwell spread out the page and pointed
to a picture. "There he is, as large as life."

A little larger than life, Janet thought. Ditmar was one of those
men who, as the expression goes, "take" well, a valuable asset in
semi-public careers; and as he stood in the sunlight on the steps of
the building where they had "snap-shotted" him he appeared even more
massive, forceful, and preponderant than she had known him. Beholding
him thus set forth and praised in a public print, he seemed suddenly to
have been distantly removed from her, to have reacquired at a bound
the dizzy importance he had possessed for her before she became his
stenographer. She found it impossible to realize that this was
the Ditmar who had pursued and desired her; at times supplicating,
apologetic, abject; and again revealed by the light in his eyes and the
trembling of his hand as the sinister and ruthless predatory male from
whom--since the revelation in her sister Lise she had determined to
flee, and whom she had persuaded herself she despised. He was a bigger
man than she had thought, and as she read rapidly down the column the
fascination that crept over her was mingled with disquieting doubt of
her own powers: it was now difficult to believe she had dominated or
could ever dominate this self-sufficient, successful person, the list
of whose achievements and qualities was so alluringly set forth by an
intervie