"No, she'll never forget it--but her feelings about you will be different from hate and scorn. She will simply find that she has been under a glamour about you, and will think of you with nothing but perfect indifference--and a feeling of wonder at her own infatuation." Jack looked vexed. "To a woman who don't know you, Jack, my boy--you become idealized, and heroic; but to one who does, you are nothing of the kind. So very impressible a fellow as you are, cannot inspire a very deep passion. When a woman finds the fellow she admires falling in love right and left, she soon gets over her fancy. If it were some one other woman that had robbed her of your affection, she would be jealous; but when she knows that all others are equally charming, she will become utterly indifferent." "See here, old boy, don't get to be so infernally oracular. What the mischief does a fellow like you know about that sort of thing? I consider your remarks as a personal insult, and, if I didn't feel so confoundedly cut up, I'd resent it. But as it is, I only feel bored, and, on the whole, I should wish it to be with Marion as you say it's going to be. If I could think it would be so, I'd be a deuced sight easier in my mind about her. If it weren't for my own abominable conduct, I'd feel glad that this sort of thing had been stopped--only I don't like to think of Marion being disappointed, you know--or hurt --and that sort of thing, you know. The fact is, I have no business to get married just now--no--not even to the angel Gabriel--and this would have been so precious hard on poor little Louie." "Louie--why," said I, "you speak confidently about her." "Oh, never fear about her," said Jack. "She's able, to take care of herself. She does nothing but laugh at me--no end." "Nothing new, then, in that quarter?" I asked, feeling desirous now of turning away from the subject of Marion, which was undergoing the same treatment from Jack which a fine and delicate watch would receive at the hands of a big baby. "No fresh, proposals?" "No," said Jack, dolefully, "nothing but chaff." "And Miss Phillips?" "Affairs in that quarter are in _statu quo_," said Jack. "She's chosen to not-at-home me, and how it's going to turn out is more than I can tell. But I'll be even with her yet. I'll pay her off!" "Perhaps you won't find it so easy as you imagine." "Won't I?" said Jack, mysteriously; "you'll see." "Perhaps she's organizing a plan to pay _you_ off." "That's more than she can do." "By-the-way--what about the widow?" "Well," said Jack, seriously, "whatever danger is impending over me, maybe looked for chiefly in that quarter." "Have you seen her lately?" "No--not since the evening I took the chaplain there." "You must have heard something." "Yes," said Jack, moodily. "What?" "Well, I heard from Louie, who keeps well up in my affairs, you know. She had gathered something about the widow." "Such as what?" "Well, you know--she wouldn't tell." "Wouldn't tell?"