. The letter
must have come through by land, and she came by the way of Portland.
Confound those abominable mails, I say! What business have those
wretched postmasters to send their letters through the woods and snow?
Well, never mind. I made it up all right."

"All right?"

"Oh, yes. I explained it all, you know. I cleared up every thing in the
completest way. In fact, I made a full, ample, intelligible, and
perfectly satisfactory explanation of the whole thing. I showed that it
was all a mistake, you know--that I was humbugged by the mails, and all
that sort of thing, you know. So she relented, and we made it all up,
and I took her out driving, and we had a glorious time, though the
roads were awful--perfect lakes, slush no end, universal thaw, and all
that. But we did the drive, and I promised to go there again to-day."

"And did you call on the widow?"

"Oh, yes; but before I went there I had to write a letter to Number
Three."

"Number Three! You must have had your hands full?"

"Hands full? I should think I had, my boy. You know what agony writing
a letter is to me. It took me two hours to get through it. You see I
had written her before, reproaching her for not running off with me,
and she had answered me. I got her answer yesterday morning. She wrote
back a repetition of her reason for not going, and pleaded her father,
who she said would go mad if she did such a thing. Between you and me,
Macrorie, that's all bosh. The man's as mad as a March hare now. But
this wasn't all. What do you think? She actually undertook to haul me
over the coals about the widow."

"What! has she heard about it?"

"Oh, yes. Didn't I tell you before that she kept the run of me pretty
closely? Well, she's evidently heard all about me and the widow, and
accordingly, after a brief explanation about her father, she proceeded
to walk into me about the widow. Now that was another shock. You see,
the fact is, I pitched into her first for this very reason, and
thought, if I began the attack, she'd have to take up a strictly
defensive attitude. But she was too many guns for me. No go, my boy.
Not with Number Three. She dodged my blow, and then sprang at me
herself, and I found myself thrown on my defence. So you see I had to
write to her at once."

Jack sighed heavily, and quaffed some Bass.

"But how the mischief could you handle such a subject? Two hours! I
should think so. For my part, I don't see how you managed it at all."