Jenny: Foreground Images

It was not, he considered, the sort of question a woman with twisted motives usually asked, unless she were very good; and he had been about and about, and had seen the very good ones. Glancing her way again, Caleb managed to straighten a little and reply in a warm sort of way, "No. No, you haven't offended me. I'm just a little preoccupied with other things."

She was feeling the rub. Word spread like wildfire in their runs, and he knew she was feeling the wariness of the others - and, too, probably a bit of homesickness and strangerhood among a community so tightly-knit as his own. So he said, slipping sideways a little, "You were going to play the harp after supper..."