But unknown to him two ladies went, to whom he had told this as a rather dreary joke.

They were ladies he esteemed very much, though having a sense of humor he sometimes chuckled on his way home from Magenta Cottage, and he thought out many ways of adding little pleasures to their lives.

It was like him to ask Miss Kitty to sing and play, though he disliked music.

He understood that it is a hard world for single women, and knew himself for a very ordinary sort of man.

If it ever crossed his head that Miss Kitty would be willing to marry him, he felt genuinely sorry at the same time that she had not done better long ago.