entertain himself and us.

Now don't imagine the man a hero, for he was no such thing. He was very
good-looking,--some might say handsome,--well-bred, well educated, with
plenty of common information picked up in a promiscuous intercourse with
town and country people, rather fine tastes, and a great, strong,
magnanimous, physical nature, modest, but perfectly self-conscious. That
was his only charm for me. I despise a mere animal; but, other things
being equal, I admire a man who is big and strong, and aware of his
advantages; and I think most women, and very refined ones, too, love
physical beauty and strength much more than they are willing to
acknowledge. So I had the same admiration for Mr. Ames that I should
have had for any other finely proportioned thing, and enjoyed him very
much, sitting quietly in my corner while he chatted with Mary, or told
me stories of travel or hunting, or read aloud, which he soon fell into
the way of doing.

We did try, as much as hospitality permitted, to confine his visits to a
few ceremonious calls; but he persisted in coming almost every day, and
walked in past the girl with that quiet sort of authority which it is so
difficult to resist. In the same way he took possession of Mary and me.
He was sure it must be very dull for both of us; therefore he was going,
if we would pardon the liberty, to offer his services as reader, while
my nurse went out for a ride or a walk. Couldn't I sit out under the
shadow of the beech-trees, as well as in that hot room? He could lift
the chair and me perfectly well, and arrange all so that I should be
comfortable. He would like to superintend the cooking of some birds he
brought one day. He noticed that the girl didn't do them quite as nicely
as he had learned to do them in the woods. And so in a thousand things
he quietly made us do as he chose, without seeming to outrage any rule
of propriety. When I was able to sit in a carriage, he persuaded me to
drive with him; and I had to lean on his arm, when I first went round
the place to see how matters went on.

Once I protested against his making himself so necessary to us, and told
him that I didn't care to furnish the gossips so much food as we were
doing.

When I turned him out of doors, he would certainly stay away, he said;
but he thought, that, as long as I was an invalid, I needed some one to
think and act for me and save me the trouble, and, as no one else seemed
disposed to take the office,