I took her hand awkwardly and made no reply.

I had never seen many girls and had no very high opinion of them.
My attentive ears and eyes began to gather facts in the history of the Dunkelbergs.

Mr.Dunkelberg had throat trouble, and bought butter and cheese and sent it to Boston, and had busted his voice singing tenor, and was very rich.

I knew that he was rich because he had a gold watch and chain, and clothes as soft and clean as the butternut trousers, and a silver ring on his finger, and such a big round stomach.

That stomach was the most convincing feature of all and, indeed, I have since learned that the rounded type of human architecture is apt to be more expensive than the angular.
As we sat there I heard the men talking about the great Silas Wright, who had just returned to his home in Canton.