He loved her not only for her beauty, but for her faithful enthusiasm; but the power of others to provoke in him a momentary interest, and passion even, was something which he did not pretend to understand, explain, or moralize about.

So it was and so he was.

He did not want to hurt Aileen's feelings by letting her know that his impulses thus wantonly strayed to others, but so it was.
Not long after he had returned from the European trip he stopped one afternoon in the one exclusive drygoods store in State Street to purchase a tie.

As he was entering a woman crossed the aisle before him, from one counter to another--a type of woman which he was coming to admire, but only from a rather distant point of view, seeing them going here and there in the world.

She was a dashing type, essentially smart and trig, with a neat figure, dark hair and eyes, an olive skin, small mouth, quaint nose--all in all quite a figure for Chicago at the time.