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they would have. He wanted to find out if he could make her love him vigorously and could rout
out the memory of her former life. Strange ambition. Strange perversion, one might almost say.
In spite of her fears and her uncertainty, Lillian Semple accepted his attentions and interest
because, equally in spite of herself, she was drawn to him. One night, when she was going to
bed, she stopped in front of her dressing table and looked at her face and her bare neck and
arms. They were very pretty. A subtle something came over her as she surveyed her long,
peculiarly shaded hair. She thought of young Cowperwood, and then was chilled and shamed
by the vision of the late Mr. Semple and the force and quality of public opinion.
"Why do you come to see me so often?" she asked him when he called the following evening.
"Oh, don't you know?" he replied, looking at her in an interpretive way.
"No."
"Sure you don't?"
"Well, I know you liked Mr. Semple, and I always thought you liked me as his wife. He's gone,
though, now."
"And you're here," he replied.
"And I'm here?"
"Yes. I like you. I like to be with you. Don't you like me that way?"
"Why, I've never thought of it. You're so much younger. I'm five years older than you are."
"In years," he said, "certainly. That's nothing. I'm fifteen years older than you are in other ways. I
know more about life in some ways than you can ever hope to learn--don't you think so?" he
added, softly, persuasively.
"Well, that's true. But I know a lot of things you don't know." She laughed softly, showing her
pretty teeth.
It was evening. They were on the side porch. The river was before them.
"Yes, but that's only because you're a woman. A man can't hope to get a woman's point of view
exactly. But I'm talking about practical affairs of this world. You're not as old that way as I am."
"Well, what of it?"
"Nothing. You asked why I came to see you. That's why. Partly."
He relapsed into silence and stared at the water.
She looked at him. His handsome body, slowly broadening, was nearly full grown. His face,
because of its full, clear, big, inscrutable eyes, had an expression which was almost babyish.
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