Introduction

Archer felt himself almost humiliatingly calm and comforted. It was the perfect balance she had held between their loyalty to others and their honesty to themselves that had so stirred and yet tranquillized him. A balance not artfully calculated, but resulting naturally from her unabashed sincerity. Her choice would be to stay near him, as long as he did not ask her to come nearer. And it depended on himself to keep her just there, safe, but secluded in the train.