, sure
of himself and of little Miss Fly....

But, after all, the spider in the case was not such a terrible fellow.
Just because a man wants a girl that doesn't want him, and means to have
her, he hasn't necessarily earned a hard name. Such a man as often as
not becomes one-half of a very happy marriage. And Mr. Bob Blagdon was
considered an exceptionally good fellow. In his heart, though I have
never heard him say so openly, I think he actually looked down on people
who gambled and drank to excess, and who were uneducated and had
acquired (whatever they may have been born with) perfectly empty heads.
I think that he had a sound and sensible virtue; one ear for one side of
an argument, and one for the other.

There is no reason to doubt that he was a good husband to his first
wife, and wished to replace her with little Miss Blythe, not to supplant
her. To his three young children he was more of a grandfather than a
father; though strong-willed and even stubborn, he was unable half the
time to say no to them. And I have seen him going on all-fours with the
youngest child perched on his back kicking him in the ribs and urging
him to canter. So if he intended by the strength of his will and of his
riches to compel little Miss Blythe to marry (and to be happy with him;
he thought he could manage that, too), it is only one blot on a decent
and upright character. And it is unjust to have called him spider.

But when Mister Masters entered (so timidly to the eye, but really so
masterfully) into little Miss Blythe's life, she could no longer
tolerate the idea of marrying Mr. Blagdon. All in a twinkle she knew
that horses and yachts and great riches could never make up to her for
the loss of a long, bashful youth with a crooked smile. You can't be
really happy if you are shivering with cold; you can't be really happy
if you are dripping with heat. And she knew that without Mister Masters
she must always be one thing or the other--too cold or too hot, never
quite comfortable.

Her own mind was made up from the first; even to going through any
number of awful scenes with Blagdon. But as time passed and her
attentions (I shall have to call it that) to Mister Masters made no
visible progress, there were times when she was obliged to think that
she would never marry anybody at all. But in her heart she knew that
Masters was attracted by her, and to this strand of knowledge she clung
so as not to be drowned in a sea of despair.