But he had reasoned nothing from this, beyond, perhaps, the thought that Miss Alvira made a poor figure beside her magnificent companion, even if her bonnet was always the gayest bonnet in church, trembling through every season with the blossoms of some ageless springtime.

For the rest, Miss Alvira's face and hair and eyes seemed to be all one colour, very pale, and her hands were long and thin, with far too many bones in them for human hands, the little boy thought.
Yet when he learned that the woman was not without merit in the sight of his clear-eyed hero, he, too, gave her his favour.

At the marriage he felt in his heart a certain high, pure joy that must have been akin to that in the bride's own heart, for their faces seemed to speak much alike.
Tensely the little boy listened to the words that united these two, understanding perfectly from questions that his hero endowed the woman at his side with all his worldly goods.

Even a less practicable person than Miss Alvira would have acquired distinction in this light--being endowed with the gold horse, to say nothing of the carven cigar-holder or the precious jewel in the scarlet cravat.

Probably now she would be able to throw her thumbs out of joint, too! But to the little boy chiefly the thing meant that Cousin Bill J.would stay close at hand, to be a joy forever in his sight and lend importance to the town of Edom.