Leo was clever, she knew; and Esther after a fashion; but these two people had an uncomfortable, eccentric, undignified method of setting about things, from the way they did their hair, upwards. But Reuben had sacrificed none of his dignity as a human being to his cleverness; he was eminently normal, though cleverer than any one she knew. For the long-haired type of man, the professional person of genius, this thorough-going Philistine, this conservative ingrain, had no tolerance whatever. She never could understand the mania among some of the girls of her set, Rose Leuniger included, for the second-rate actors, musicians, and professional reciters with whom they came into occasional contact at parties. She had, it is seen, distinct if unformulated notions as to the sanity of true genius. And she herself? She was so sensible, oh, she was thoroughly sensible and matter-of-fact! Esther fell in love half-a-dozen times a season, loudly bewailing herself throughout. Even Rose was not without her _affairs de cœur_; but she, Judith, was utterly free from such sentimental aberrations. That was why perhaps a man like Reuben, who had not much opinion of women in general, considering them creatures easily snared, should find it possible to make a friend of her. She understood perfectly Adelaide’s snubs, Mrs. Sachs’s repressive attitude, Esther’s clumsily veiled warnings. She understood and was indignant. Did they think her such a fool; a person incapable of friendship with a man without misinterpretation of his motives? But Reuben knew that it was not so; and therein of course lay her strength and her consolation. It was this openly matter-of-fact attitude of hers which had not only added piquancy to his intercourse with her, but had made Reuben less careful with her than he would otherwise have been. He had no wish to hurt the girl, either as regarded her feelings or her prospects; nor was the danger, he told himself, a serious one. She liked him immensely, of course, but she was unsentimental, like most women of her race, and would settle down happily enough when the time came. He told himself these things with a secret, pleasant consciousness of a subtler element in their relationship; of unsounded depths in the nature of this girl who trusted him so completely, and whom he had so completely in hand. Nor did he hide from himself that she charmed him and pleased his taste as no other woman had ever done. A man does not so easily deceive himself in these matters, and during the last year or two he had been fully aware of a quickening in his sentiments towards her. Yes, Reuben knew by now that he was in love with Judith Quixano. The situation was full of delights, of dangers, of pains and pleasantnesses. A disturbing element in the serene course of his existence, it added a charm to existence of which he was in no haste to be rid. CHAPTER V.