The Tragic Muse

Chapter 27

Nick went to Great Stanhope Street at five o'clock and learned, rather

to his surprise, that Julia was not at home--to his surprise because he

had told her he would come at that hour, and he attributed to her, with

a certain simplicity, an eager state of mind in regard to his

explanation. Apparently she was not eager; the eagerness was his own--he

was eager to explain. He recognised, not without a certain consciousness

of magnanimity in doing so, that there had been some reason for her

quick withdrawal from his studio or at any rate for her extreme

discomposure there. He had a few days before put in a plea for a snatch

of worship in that sanctuary and she had accepted and approved it; but

the worship, when the curtain happened to blow back, showed for that of

a magnificent young