She accepted all he had to offer as a becoming tribute to her feminine superiority, and evaded dexterously the deeper issue.
Now and then he reported his progress to Edith.
"I rather think," he said, "she's coming round.

I'm regarded as a distinctly eligible person." They laughed at his complete adoption of the part and his innocent joy in it.
That had always been his way.

When he had begun a game there was no stopping him.

He played it through to the end.
Edith would look up smiling and say: "Well, how goes the affair ?" (They always called it the affair.) Or: "How did you get on to-day ?" And it would be: "Pretty well."-- "Better to-day than yesterday."-- "No luck to-day." One Sunday he came to her radiant.
"She really does," said he, "seem interested in what I say." "What did you talk about ?" "The influence of Christianity on woman.

Was that good ?" "Very good." "I didn't know very much about it, but I got her to tell me things." "That," said Edith, "was still better." "But she sticks to it that she doesn't understand me.