How closely this proposal of the Major's coincided with the recoil of his public humiliation I do not pretend to determine.

Certain it is that he had no sooner written and sealed his letter than the shadow of a doubt began to creep over his hot fit.
He started up, lit his long pipe, and fell to pacing the room with agitated strides.

Was he doing wisely?
Matrimony, he had sometimes told his friends, is like a dip in the sea; the wise man takes it at a plunge, head first.

Yes, yes; but had he given it quite sufficient reflection?
Could he promise himself he would never regret?
He was not doubting that Miss Marty would make him an excellent wife.
Admirable creature, she bore every test he could apply.

She was gentle, companionable, intelligent in converse, yet never forward in giving an opinion; too studious, rather, to efface herself; in household management economical without being penurious; a notable cook and needlewoman; in person by no means uncomely, and in mind as well as person so scrupulously neat that her unobtrusive presence, her noiseless circumspect flittings from room to room, exhaled an atmosphere of daintiness in which it was good to dwell.