Explore "The Hidden Door" by Arthur Gask on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
John Harden was certainly no laggard in love. He had seen Ann Devenham often at the bank, had met her twice outside, had danced with her seven times, and was convinced that she was the most beautiful and wonderful creature in all the world. Also, he was certain that she had not resented that last final pressure of the hand that he had given her upon the night of the Shire Ball, and almost, he thought, and his heart beat tumultuously at the idea, she had in a gentle way returned it.
He was in no wise deterred by the knowledge that she was a relation of the great Lord Thralldom and he only a bank clerk upon a salary of 5 a week, with his father a struggling doctor in the East End of London. It was sufficient to him that she was a woman and would one day, he knew, be he rich or poor, noble or otherwise, respond to the advances of a lover.