It was as though the workaday atmosphere
were scented with the breath of a delicate perfume--a perfume
that was tainted with the tang of my yearning for Matilda
Two girls who were seated within a yard from my machine were
continually bandying secrets. Now one and then the other would
look around to make sure that the contractor was not watching,
and then she would bend over and whisper something into her
chum's ear. This would set my blood tingling with a peculiar kind
of inquisitiveness. It was reasonable to suppose that their
whispered conferences mostly bore upon such innocent matters as
their work, earnings, lodgings, or dresses. Nevertheless, it seemed
to me that their whispers, especially when accompanied by a
smile, a giggle, or a wink, conveyed some of their intimate
thoughts of men. They were homely girls, with pinched faces, yet
at such moments they represented to me all that there was
fascinating and disquieting in womanhood
The jests of the foul-mouthed rowdies would make me writhe with
disgust. As a rule they were ostensibly addressed to some of the
other fellows or to nobody in particular, their real target being the
nearest girls.
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