her mother at ease--there was no chair to sit
upon, she had to stand and listen to all this while he spoke, more or
less at his ease, from the bed. If she also had been sitting down she
might have been mistress of her thoughts and able to deal naturally
with the situation; but an easy pose is difficult when standing: her
hands would fold in front of her and the schoolgirl attitude annoyed
and restrained her. Also, the man appeared to be in earnest in what he
said. His words at the least and the intention which drove them seemed
honorable. She could not give rein to her feelings without lapsing to
a barbarity which she might not justify to herself even in anger and
might, indeed, blush to remember. Perhaps his chief disqualification
consisted in a relationship to Mrs. O'Connor for which he could not
justly be held to blame, and for which she sincerely pitied him. But
this certainly was a disqualification never to be redeemed. He might
leave his work, or his religion, or his country, but he could never
quit his aunt, because he carried her with him under his skin; he was
her with additions, and at times Mrs. Makebelieve could see Mrs.
O'Connor looking cautiously at her through the policeman's eyes; a
turn of his forehead and she was there like a thin wraith that
vanished and appeared again. The man was spoiled for her. He did not
altogether lack sense, and the fact that he wished to marry her
daughter showed that he was not so utterly beyond the reach of
redemption as she had fancied.

Meanwhile, he had finished his statement as regarded the affection
which he bore to her daughter and the suitability of their
temperaments, and had hurled himself into an explanation of his
worldly affairs, comprising his salary as a policeman, the possibility
of promotion and the increased emoluments which would follow it, and
the certain pension which would sustain his age. There was,
furthermore, his parents, from whose decease he would reap certain
monetary increments, and the deaths of other relatives from which an
additional enlargement of his revenues might reasonably be expected.
Indeed, he had not desired to speak of these matters at all, but the
stony demeanor of Mrs. Makebelieve and the sullen aloofness of her
daughter forced him, however reluctantly, to draw even ignoble weapons
from his armory. He had not conceived they would be so obdurate: he
had, in fact, imagined that the elder woman must be flattered by his
offer to marr