d what did you say?"

"Say? What could I say? She forced me to own up about the widow. Hang
it, you know I can't lie. So, after trying to dodge her questions, I
answered them. She wouldn't let me dodge them. But there was one thing
left. I swore to her, by all that was true, that I didn't care a fig
for the widow, that my engagement with her arose altogether through a
mistake. She pressed me hard on this, and I had to tell this too."

"What? Look here, Jack--you didn't drag in Louie into your confounded
scrape?"

"Do you think I'm such a villain as that?" said Jack, indignantly. "No
--of course I didn't. Louie--I'd die first. No. I told her some story
about my mistaking her for a friend, whose name I didn't mention. I
told her that I took the widow's hand by mistake--just in fun, you
know--thinking it was my friend, and all that; and before I knew it the
widow had nabbed me."

"Well?"

"Well, she didn't condescend to ask the name of my friend. She thought
the widow was enough at a time, I suppose, and so she asked me about
the state of my feelings toward her. And here I expressed myself
frankly. I told her that my only desire was to get out of her clutches
--that it was all a mistake, and that I was in an infernal scrape, and
didn't know how to get out of it.

"Such strong language as this mollified her a little, and she began to
believe me. Yet she did not soften altogether. At last, I pitched into
the widow hot and heavy. This restored her to her usual self. She
forgave me altogether. She even said that she was sorry for me. She
hinted, too, that if she ever saw the widow, she'd have it out with
her."

"Heaven forbid!" said I. "Keep them apart, Jack, if you can."

Jack groaned.

"So it's all right, is it? I congratulate you--as far as it's worth
congratulation, you know. So you got out of it, did you? A 'full,
fresh, frank, free, formal, ample, exhaustive, and perfectly
satisfactory explanation,' hey? That's the style of thing, is it?"

Jack gnashed his teeth.

"Come, now--old boy--no chaff. I'm beyond that. Can't stand it. Fact
is, you haven't heard the whole story yet, and I don't feel like
telling the rest of it, if you interrupt a fellow with your confounded
humbug."

"Go ahead--don't fear, Jack--I won't chaff."

Jack drew a long breath.

"Well, then--I took her out for a drive. We had a very good time,
though both of us were a little preoccupied, and I thought she had
altered awfully from what