He had the natural hunger of a young man to talk to a young
woman; and, moreover, it is a severe strain for a man to be living
under the same roof with the girl he loves and not to be on terms of
friendship with her. But Maggie maintained her aloofness. She spoke
only when she was pressed into it, and her speech was usually no more
than a "yes" or a "no," or a flashing phrase of disdain.
At times Larry had the feeling that, for all her repression, Maggie
would have been glad to be more free with him. And he knew enough of
human nature not to be too disheartened by her attitude. Had he been a
nonentity to her, she would have ignored him. Her very insults were
proof that he was a positive personality with real significance in her
life. And so he counseled himself to have patience and await a thawing
or an awaking. Besides, he kept repeating to himself, there would be
small chance of effecting a conversion in this militant young
orthodoxist of cynicism until he had proved the soundness of contrary
views by his own established success.
And thus the days drifted by. But on the fifth day after his interview
with Barlow things began to happen. First of all, he noticed in a
morning paper that Red Hannigan and Jack Rosenfeldt, members of his
old outfit and suggested by Old Jimmie as participants in his proposed
new enterprise, had just been arrested by Gavegan and Casey on the
charge of alleged connection with the sale of fraudulent mining stock.
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