Mrs. Hopewell's externally-oriented approach to the world doesn't allow her to see past the fazade of the nave Bible salesman, and Huga is so internally focused she fails to look beyond the cacoon of "wisdom- she's erected to see Manley for what he really is. As Manley finishes his unsecessful sales pitch, he cateches up with Hulga on his way out. Not only does he manage to get her attention, but piques her interest ot the point that she agrees to meet him the following night. As the story continues, Hulga becomes caught up with the idea of spoiling what she believes is Manley's fragile innocence, and reshaping his view of the world to match her own. ( ) .
In the conversation that ensues following their late-night meeting at the gate We get the a strong sense of foreshadowing when Manley begins to contradict himself by expressing great surprise at Hulga's unabashed disbeleig in God, but also stops periodically to kiss her deeply. ( ) As appareant as it appears to the reader at this point that something sinister is afoot, Hulga's overwhelming sense of superiority manages to keep her totally oblivious "Even before he released her, her mind, clear and detatched and ironic anyway, was regarding him from a great distance, not with amusement, but with pity."" ( ) Once they arrive at their destination (the barn) Hulga can hold back her towering sense of intellectual "mastery- over Manley and tells him "I have a number of degrees."" ( ) .
When Manley explains that he doesn't really care about her education, Hugla operated on the assumption that he's just too ignorant to know better but a minute later starts to understand there is something else about her he is much more interested in. Though Hulga has managed to keep herself somewhat distant up to this point, but finds herself shocked out of that state of mind when Manley asks her to take off her prosthetic leg and hand it to him.
