Obviously, much hung upon this unconventional,
this vulgarly-sensational marriage being diplomatically announced
to the person from whom she expected to get an income of her own.
"No," said she to Joshua, in response to his nervously-made offer.
"You must wait down in the office while I tell her. At the proper
time I'll send for you."
She spoke friendlily enough, with an inviting suggestion of their
common interests. But Craig found it uncomfortable even to look at
her. Now that the crisis was over his weaknesses were returning;
he could not believe he had dared bear off this "delicate, refined
creature," this woman whom "any one can see at a glance is a
patrician of patricians." That kind of nervousness as quickly
spreads through every part, moral, mental and physical, of a man
not sure of himself as a fire through a haystack. He could not
conceal his awe of her. She saw that something was wrong with him;
being herself in no "patrician" mood, but, on the contrary, in a
mood that was most humanly plebeian, she quite missed the cause of
his clumsy embarrassment and constraint; she suspected a sudden
physical ailment. "It'll be some time, I expect," said she.
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