The discovery of Ida's love caused him
far greater surprise than when he recognized his own, and it was a
source of deep satisfaction to him that this modern and conventional
Undine had received a nature of such true and womanly delicacy that
it had led her to conceal her love like the trailing-arbutus that
hides its fragrant blossoms under fallen leaves.
The light had been so clear that he even saw the temptation which
he unconsciously had suggested to her while in the city. Unlike
the little violet that weakly bowed its head and died because the
brook would not stop, she had resolutely set about the task of
making him stop, and yet never let him suspect that she was even
looking at him. Hence her attempt to penetrate the wilderness of
knowledge which was at once so pathetic and comical; hence also
her wish to learn the authors and subjects which interested him.
"And she had every reason to believe that she might have won me
from the one honorable allegiance I can give," he exclaimed, in
deep humiliation, "and probably she would have done so eventually
had she not acted liek a saint rather than a woman. I've lost
faith utterly in Harold Van Berg, and it will require a great many
years to regain it.
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