He began in imagination to refer matters of moment to her judgment; he began to save up little events of interest that he might remember to tell them to her.

He understood that he had a companion, even when he was alone, a condition which he had not anticipated even for his late thirties.

And he came to the conclusion that he had not that complete ordering of his life on which he had counted.

He was not, however, disappointed.

He seized upon the good thing which had come to him with a great deal of wonder and a very thankful heart; and he was not disposed to let it lightly go.
Thus the vulgarity which Garratt Skinner chose to assume, the unattractive figure of "red-hot" Barstow, and the obvious swindle which was being perpetrated on Walter Hine, had the opposite effect to that which Skinner expected.