Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/161

 Life Work, usually fills up the foreground of her existence as completely as if it were the Sphinx itself. Miss Twombly observed this. She tried to get over or around the tremendous fact that bounded her, but wherever she turned it was there. She was surprised at first, then incredulous, then annoyed, and finally alarmed. Being an introspective and extremely conscientious person, she made an analysis of her mental condition and discovered these things:

That she spent a surprising amount of time in thought concerning Dr. Schuyler—this thought occupying itself with such trivial details as idle remarks he had made, the color of the clothes he wore, a certain expression his eyes took on, the white flash of his teeth as he smiled.

That she was holding imaginary conversations with him, in the course of which she astonished and delighted him by the aptness and brilliancy of her remarks. That when she made her visits it seemed desirable to go very often to the hospitals he frequented. That when she got there her calls resolved themselves into a strained looking and listening for a glimpse of him and the sound of his voice.

That it gave her great pleasure to hear her