Pessimism is at bottom a kind of mental indolence, I'd say--an unpleasant kind." "Some matters are not solved by action," said he.

"That is, when they are out of one's hands and in another's." Her attention was caught by those words, and she hung on them for a little.

They distressed her; they caused her to understand the forced immobility of his face as he spoke, and wish that he would give way to his feeling.

The phrase "out of one's hands and in another's" referred undoubtedly to Ruth Gardner.

She did not trust herself to speak.
"What became of all those flowers that were in your garden last summer ?" he asked, suddenly.