without apparent effort, and talked on at length of her work and vision.
Somehow he could not understand. His mental attitude toward Zora had always been one of guidance, guardianship, and instruction. He had been judging and weighing her from on high, looking down upon her with thoughts of uplift and development. Always he had been holding her dark little hands to lead her out of the swamp of life, and always, when in senseless anger he had half forgotten and deserted her, this vision of elder brotherhood had still remained. Now this attitude was being revolutionized. She was proposing to him a plan of wide scope‚ÅÝ‚Äîa bold regeneration of the land. It was a plan carefully studied out, long thought of and read about. He was asked to be co-worker‚ÅÝ‚Äînay, in a sense to be a follower, for he was ignorant of much.
He hesitated. Then all at once a sense of his utter unworthiness overwhelmed him.
Who was he to stand and judge this unselfish woman? Who was he to falter when she called?
A sense of his smallness and narrowness, of his priggish blindness, rose like a mockery in his soul.
One thing alone held him back: he was not unwilling to be simply human, a learner and a follower; but would he as such ever command the love and respect of this new and inexplicable woman? Would not comradeship on the basis of the new friendship which she insisted on, be the death of love and thoughts of love?
Thus he hesitated, knowing that his duty lay clear. In her direst need he had deserted her. He had left her to go to destruction and expected that she would.