FELIX BAUER very seldom began a conversation with anyone and on this
occasion he did not venture to say anything first. During his whole stay
in the house, Helen had learned that fact about his habits as a talker. He was a splendid listener and that made him popular with anyone who talked to him. If you want to be popular you don't have to be a brilliant talker. Being a brilliant listener is better.
But Helen had a touch of her father's stubbornness on certain occasions. She was not in any sense what could be called a flirt, or a girl who planned, out of a set purpose, to make a conquest or use her powers of attractiveness to disturb the peace of her young men acquaintances. But she was vain to a certain degree, and she knew when she looked in her mirror that she was unusually attractive, as every beautiful woman knows, and Felix Bauer was different from the other young men she knew. She said to herself as she looked across the room at him that he was certainly no fashion plate and was in fact extremely plain looking, all but his eyes, and Helen acknowledged that Walter was right when he wrote that Bauer had the most beautiful brown eyes he ever saw in a human being. When Helen was a little girl she had once seen Phillips Brooks, and she had never forgotten his wonderful eyes. Bauer's were like that. She could not help wondering what sort of people his parents were and what his home life was. The stubborn feeling prompted her to say to herself, "I'll make him speak first. He doesn't need to be so stupid. And besides it is not gentlemanly in him always to wait for the other person to begin."
She was working at some piece of embroidery, which is an advantage in
helping one in situations of possible embarrassment to keep up an
appearance, at least, of self-possession. And the pattern being a
difficult one gave her the excuse of keeping her eyes fixed on her work
most of the time. She sat there in the corner absolutely dumb, waiting
for Bauer to speak. A noisy little clock on the shelf over the grate
ticked away at least three minutes. Bauer opened his lips once or twice
as if to say a word, but nothing came of it. He looked at Helen almost
appealingly and once he seemed on the point of leaving the room. But
Helen's eyes were fixed on her work and the silence was unbroken by any
movement.
At last Helen looked up after a longer period than any other, and to her
disgust saw that Bauer had picked up the magazine he had dropped when
she came in, and had resumed his reading, or at least seemed to have
done so.
For a minute she looked and felt vexed. "The horrid creature!" she
exclaimed to herself, and then out loud she said in a sweet voice:
"Is that an interesting story you are reading?"
Bauer instantly closed the magazine and put it on the table.
"I don't know yet. I haven't finished it."
"Were you going to?"
"Yes, some time."
"Can't you tell me what the story is about?"
"It's about two people," said Bauer tamely.
"Is that all?" asked Helen after a pause on Bauer's part of several
seconds.
"They start out with a ridiculous misunderstanding and it seems to be
getting worse."
Helen looked amused and said, "Won't you go on?"
"The young woman thinks the young man is in love with her. He isn't at
all--that is--not yet, but he is afraid he will be."
"Afraid? Is the girl so bad looking as that?"
"No, she is enough good looking to make up for both of them. And he is
in some need of it."
Helen laughed. "These magazine stories are the most absurd things that
ever were printed."
"I think so myself."
"What makes you read them then?"
"I was just doing it to pass the time."
"That's flattering."
"Flattering?"
"Yes."
Bauer was silent thirty seconds. Then he said, "Flattering to whom?"
"To me, isn't it?"
Bauer's face was a study. Helen laughed again.
"Why didn't you speak to me when I came in?"
"I didn't know you wanted to talk." Bauer looked actually hurt.
"Honest?"
"How could I know you wanted to talk."
"A woman always cares, Mr. Bauer."
"You seemed intent on your work and I am no mind reader."
"I had made up my mind not to speak first. But I broke my
determination." The noisy little clock made itself prominent during the
next half minute and then Bauer, to Helen's surprise, actually led off
with a question.
"Would you tell me what you are making?"