Soon Jonah stayed at the house on Saturday night as a matter of course.
But Jonah drew the line when the mother hinted that he might as well stay there altogether.

He feared a trap; and when she pointed out the danger of two women living alone in the house, he looked at her brawny arms and smiled.
Haunted by her scheme for marriage, she set to work to undermine Jonah's obstinacy.

She proceeded warily, and made no open attack; but Jonah began to notice with uneasiness that he could not talk for five minutes without stumbling on marriage.

In the midst of a conversation on the weather, he would be amazed to find the theme turn to the praise of marriage, brought mysteriously to this hateful word as a man is led blindfold to a giddy cliff.

When his startled look warned the mother, she changed the subject.
Still she persevered, sapping Jonah's prejudices with the terrible zeal of a priest making a convert.