Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/466

Rh warmth of personality in which she moved. And besides, she would never be drawn to the kind of man who needed ﬁne clothes and luxury to point him to the charm of sex. She was always ﬁnished and graceful in appearance, with the pretty woman’s art of wearing her few plain dresses as if they were many and varied; yet no one could think of her as attaching much importance to the upholstery of life.… No, the man who won her would be of a different type, have other inducements to offer … and Amherst found himself wondering just what those inducements would be.

Suddenly he remembered something his mother had said as he left the house—something about a distinguished-looking young man who had called to ask for Miss Brent. Mrs. Amherst, innocently inquisitive in small matters, had followed her son into the hall to ask the parlour-maid if the gentleman had left his name; and the parlour-maid had answered in the negative. The young man was evidently not indigenous: all the social units of Hanaford were intimately known to each other. He was a stranger, therefore, presumably drawn there by the hope of seeing Miss Brent. But if he knew that she was coming he must be intimately acquainted with her movements.… The thought came to Amherst as an unpleasant surprise. It showed him for the ﬁrst time how little he knew of Justine’s personal life, of the ties she might have formed [ 450 ]