During her first year in school he had noticed Clara, had been undecided
as to whether he had better pay attention to her or to a little black-eyed
town girl who was in their classes. Several times he walked down the
college hill and along the street with Clara. The two stood at a street
crossing where she was in the habit of taking a car. Several cars went
by as they stood together by a bush that grew by a high stone wall. They
talked of trivial matters, a comedy club that had been organized in the
school, the chances of victory for the football team. The young man was one
of the actors in a play to be given by the comedy club and told Clara of
his experiences at rehearsals. As he talked his eyes began to shine and he
seemed to be looking, not at her face or body, but at something within her.
For a time, perhaps for fifteen minutes, there was a possibility that the
two people would love each other. Then the young man went away and later
she saw him walking under the trees on the college campus with the little
black-eyed town girl.
As she sat on the porch in the darkness in the summer evenings, Clara
thought of the incident and of dozens of other swift-passing contacts
she had made with men. The voices of the two men talking of money-making
went on and on. Whenever she came back out of her introspective world of
thought, Alfred Buckley's long jaw was wagging. He was always at work,
steadily, persistently urging something on her father.
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