A class with him always made a delightful hour for Alice—a quiet, unhurried hour during which she would consider him with deep, dreaming satisfaction. Here he was near her but making no demand upon her. She liked to have him make demands; how would she ever live without his needing her? But how she liked these hours of nearness to him during which he would completely forget her in his absorption in the work of the class.
She did not mind that he forgot her, though she seldom completely lost her awareness of him; loving him, she loved his way of wholly absorbing himself with an idea. She realized that he ought to take the idea of economics seriously. She had no interest in it for itself; she learned, almost verbatim, important paragraphs of the text-book and so she was sure to "pass" creditably; but this was a course which she had entered because David was in it.
This morning she watched him lose himself in speculation and she guessed that he was visualizing the progress of his ten thousand dollars through the hands of Mr. Snelgrove into the channels of manufacturing and selling effort to which the professor was referring. Ordinarily she would have sat back, half listening, meditative, thoroughly content; but the usual peace and sense of security was gone from her.
Gazing at David, she thought about Fidelia Netley and wondered if she was having any difficulty with the registrar. That was possible if, as Myra believed, Miss Netley had been in trouble elsewhere. How simple for her if Fidelia Netley would not be allowed in college! Then she felt how false and cowardly
