Old Thomas Brockwell--sometimes called Bull Brockwell, he of the mighty thews and sinews--had been for some years a widower, and had he remained a widower I should have been the poorer by one good friend--a lowly one--oh, yes--but you know that true friendship is one of the few things the lowly can afford to give. But the broad-shouldered, ruddy-faced old Briton had married an American wife in the person of the mother of my closest chum--and so I learned many things about the narrow, hard, honest old giant--things that sometimes filled my eyes with tears of laughter; sometimes with stinging drops of anguished pity. The only surprising thing about Brockwell’s second marriage was that it had not taken place years before--for given a working-class Englishman of middle age--owning a house of his own--you have the worst material in the world for a widower. But, like most of his race, he was a bit contrary, and when all his housekeepers and his elderly unmarried friends pursued him openly--without even trying to hide the matrimonial _lasso_ with a few flowers of sentiment or delicacy--he shook his obstinate, old head and plunged away. Then Emily had arrived upon the scene, whom he described as “a fine figure of a woman” (she weighed something over two hundred), and if she was too inert to join in the general pursuit of him, she was also too inert to _avoid_ pursuit herself--hence the marriage, and though, while praising her housekeeping, he openly expressed his doubts of her soul’s salvation--the new, phlegmatic Mrs. Brockwell remained quite undisturbed. She was an experienced chewer of gum--she said she _had_ to chew it to aid her digestion--but be that as it may, a certain mental clearness, a sort of spiritual calm, seemed to come to her from her steady, cow-like munching. On the occasion of her second marriage she had contentedly chewed until she took her place before the lean, old minister; then, having no bridesmaid to act for her, she stuck her gum on her breast-pin, temporarily, while she promised to accept the big party at her side, and all his belongings, and to nurse him for the rest of his life without further remuneration--and with the nuptial benediction she had resumed her gum and had gone forth a slowly-chewing, contented bride--and on Sunday, he wishing, probably, to do all that was courteous and polite under the circumstances, took his new wife out to the cemetery and proceeded to introduce her--as it were--to the other members of the family.