u can
find me any of your heroes to match him, I will thank you. He came on the
day I speak of, to consult me as to whether, with the income he then had
. . . Well, I had to tell him you were engaged. The man has never wavered
in his love of you since that day. He has had to bear something.'

This was an electrical bolt into Tony's bosom, shaking her from self-pity
and shame to remorseful pity of the suffering lover; and the tears ran in
streams, as she said:

'He bore it, Emmy, he bore it.' She sobbed out: 'And he went on building
a fortune and batting! Whatever he undertakes he does perfectly-approve
of the pattern or not. Oh! I have no doubt he had his nest of wish piping
to him all the while: only it seems quaint, dear, quaint, and against
everything we've been reading of lovers! Love was his bread and butter!'
Her dark eyes showered. 'And to tell you what you do not know of him, his
way of making love is really,' she sobbed, 'pretty. It . . . it took me
by surprise; I was expecting a bellow and an assault of horns; and if,
dear:--you will say, what boarding-school girl have you got with you! and
I feel myself getting childish:--if Sol in his glory had not been so m
. . . majestically m . . . magnificent, nor seemed to show me the king
. . . kingdom of my dreams, I might have stammered the opposite word to the
one he heard. Last night, when he took my hand kindly before going to bed
I had a fit for dropping on my knees to him. I saw him bleed, and he held
himself right royally. I told you he did;--Sol in his moral grandeur! How
infinitely above the physical monarch--is he not, Emmy? What one
dislikes, is the devotion of all that grandeur to win a widow. It should
be a maiden princess. You feel it so, I am sure. And here am I, as if a
maiden princess were I, demanding romantic accessories of rubious vapour
in the man condescending to implore the widow to wed him. But, tell me,
does he know everything of his widow--everything? I shall not have to go
through the frightful chapter?'

'He is a man with his eyes awake; he knows as much as any husband could
require to know,' said Emma; adding: 'My darling! he trusts you. It is
the soul of the man that loves you, as it is mine. You will not tease
him? Promise me. Give yourself frankly. You see it clearly before you.'

'I see compulsion, my dear. What I see, is a regiment of Proverbs,
bearing placards instead of guns, and each one a taunt at women,
especially at widows. T