Being duly presented to the bride and to the groom, who comported himself on the happy occasion with an ease and composure which Lady Agatha Aubrey-Blythe later characterized as "brazen American boldness," Mr. Towle shook hands with both, with such a singular and unpleasant mist clouding his glass that he was immediately thereafter obliged to resort to a vigorous and prolonged use of his large, scented cambric handkerchief. And this circumstance spared him the knowledge of Jane's smiling coldness of manner. Later in the evening Mr. Towle found himself unable to resist the opportunity of a _tête-à-tête_ which Gwendolen's half sneering, half curious appropriation of the young American made possible. Jane was seated upon a sofa engaged in a wholly hollow and perfunctory conversation with Lady Agatha, when Mr. Towle tentatively approached. Lady Agatha instantly made room for him with an air of undisguised relief which brought a faint smile to Jane's lips. When she looked up to greet her late elderly suitor she was still smiling, and the circumstance gave him courage to say, rather stiffly: "I have not as yet--er--spoken with you upon the subject of your marriage, Mrs.--ah--Everett; I trust you will permit me to wish you all happiness, and--er----" "Thank you, Mr. Towle," said Jane sweetly. She had already acquired, he reflected, the self-possessed air of the young matron, and her clear eyes were gazing at him with a shade of retrospection in their depths. She was thinking--and the man was unhappily aware of the fact--"what if I had married you!" She sighed gently and stole a glance at her young husband, who was smiling with open amusement at Gwendolen's clumsy attempts to make game of him. "I fear," she said kindly, "that I was very rude to you the last time I saw you. But I----" He waited for her to go on. "I was really very unhappy, and when one is unhappy----" Again she paused to glance at the young American whose handsome, vigorous head stood out in bold relief against the crimson cushions of his chair. "When one is unhappy it is difficult to--to be just to others. I have talked it all over with my--with Mr. Everett since our marriage, and he says you were a brick--_a brick_; yes, I am quite sure that is what he called you; but it really means something very nice and--square. You see words in America frequently mean something far different from what one has always supposed; and I am learning as fast as I can. But my husband says that I did not appreciate how awfully kind it was of you to come to America just to look for me. You did come for that; didn't you?" "I had," said Mr. Towle gravely, "no other motive in going to America."