the
Continental custom, he stooped and kissed it, much to the amusement of
two undergraduates who were at the time passing down Tutors' Lane.

XI

On the morning following the final lecture Tom woke early, and his mind
flew to the miracle of the preceding night. He was now ablaze with
Nancy! It was a dazzling business, but when had it happened? It had not
been as though he had gazed too boldly into the sun and had fallen down,
blinded by the light of it. It had, to date, been altogether painless.
He had seen Nancy in various situations, some of them pleasant, some of
them trying. He had liked the way she had met them; and then it dawned
upon him that her behaviour was consistently good; and next he knew that
it would always be so. This was a stupendous discovery, the more so
since he was not aware of any such consistency in his own character. Had
he not learned in elementary physics that unlike poles attract one
another? He could even now picture a diagram in the book showing the
hearty plus pole in happy affinity with the retiring minus pole, a
figure which proved the thing beyond a doubt. Science, when made to
serve as handmaiden to the arts, has its uses, after all, and Tom took
comfort in its present service.

Still, Nancy wasn't "cut and dried"; it would be a grave injustice to
imagine her so. She was consistent in an ever new and charming way; she
never obtruded her consistency. One would almost certainly never be
bored with her; and yet one could depend upon her through thick and
thin. He thought of the way the crew on a ferry boat throw their ropes
over the great piles as they make fast in the slip. Nancy was such a
pile--but what an odious figure! He thought of her face as he had first
seen it on the night of the Vernal, when, slightly flushed and smilingly
expectant, she had peered into the costume closet. A couplet floated out
of Freshman English into his mind--something about a countenance which
had in it sweet records and promises as sweet. He jumped out of bed to
verify it, and found:

"A countenance in which did meet
Sweet records, promises as sweet."

He read on:

"A creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food,
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles."

There was one more verse, and the last two couplets covered everything.

"A perfect Woman, nobly planned
To warm, to comfort, and command;