Her perceptions, never before exercised on these subjects, were
singularly keen. Neither of the young men had spoken a word of love to
her, yet she intuitively knew that they were both under her spell. The
young girl so stupid at her books, who could never learn arithmetic and
found history a bore, had a deeper intelligence in the reading of the
human heart than anyone of the party. More than the doctor who was a
man of education, more than David who thought so much and loved to
read, more than Leff who, if his brain was not sharp, might be supposed
to have accumulated some slight store of experience, more than Daddy
John who was old and had the hoar of worldly knowledge upon him.
Compared to her they were as novices to a nun who has made an excursion
into the world and taken a bite from the apple Eve threw away.
She had no especial liking for Leff. It amused her to torment him, to
look at him with an artless, inquiring stare when he was overwhelmed by
confusion and did not know what to say. When she felt that he had
endured sufficiently she would become merciful, drop her eyes, and end
what was to her an encounter that added a new zest to her sense of
growing power.
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