all that sort of thing. Like some tall cliff that rears its awful form,
swells from the vale, and midway cleaves the storm, and all the rest of
it. Such was the demeanor of the widow Finnimore.

She was so kind and cordial that Jack had not a word to say. After a
few days of absence, during which he had not dared to call on her, he
had ventured back, and was greeted with the gentlest of reproaches for
his neglect, and was treated with an elaboration of kindness that was
positively crushing. So he had to go, and to keep going. She would not
suffer a single cloud to arise between them. An unvarying sweetness
diffused itself evermore over her very pretty face, and through all the
tones of her very musical voice. And so Jack was held fast, bound by
invisible yet infrangible bonds, and his soul was kept in complete
subjection by the superior ascendency of the widow.

So he went to see her every day. About six, generally dined there.
Always left at eight, or just as dinner was over. Not much time for
tenderness, of course. Jack didn't feel particularly inclined for that
sort of thing. The widow, on the other hand, did not lay any stress on
that, nor did she allow herself to suspect that Jack was altogether too
cold for a lover. Not she. Beaming, my boy. All smiles, you know.
Always the same. Glad to see him when he came--a pleasant smile of
adieu at parting. In fact, altogether a model _fiancee_, such as is not
often met with in this vale of tears.

Now always, after leaving this good, kind, smiling, cordial, pretty,
clever, fascinating, serene, accomplished, hospitable, and altogether
unparalleled widow, Jack would calmly, quietly, and deliberately go
over to the Bertons', and stay there as long as he could. What for? Was
he not merely heaping up sorrow for himself in continuing so ardently
this Platonic attachment? For Louie there was no danger. According to
Jack, she still kept up her teasing, quizzing, and laughing mood.
Jack's break-up with Miss Phillips was a joke, he had confided to her
that he had also broken off with Number Three; and, though she could
not find out the cause, this became another joke. Finally, his present
attitude with regard to the widow was viewed by her as the best joke of
all. She assured him that the widow was to be his fate, and that she
had driven the others from the field, so as to have him exclusively to
herself.

And thus Jack alternated and vibrated between the widow and Louie, and
al