In her walk into the dining-room, her shapely arm rested upon the proprietor's, and her brilliant eyes looked into his with an expression that flattered to its utmost all the fool there was in him.

There was a little rivalry between the "dear friends;" but the unrestricted widow was more than a match for the circumspect and guarded wife, and Mr.Belcher was delighted to find himself seated side by side with the former.
He had not talked five minutes with Mrs.Dillingham before he knew her.
The exquisite varnish that covered her person and her manners not only revealed, but made beautiful, the gnarled and stained wood beneath.
Underneath the polish he saw the element that allied her with himself.
There was no subject upon which she could not lead or accompany him with brilliant talk, yet he felt that there was a coarse under-current of sympathy by which he could lead her, or she could lead him--where?
The courtly manners of the table, the orderly courses that came and went as if the domestic administration were some automatic machine, and the exquisite appointments of the board, all exercised a powerful moral influence upon him; and though they did not wholly suppress him, they toned him down, so that he really talked well.

He had a fund of small wit and drollery that was sufficient, at least, for a single dinner; and, as it was quaint and fresh, the guests were not only amused, but pleased.

In the first place, much could be forgiven to the man who owned Palgrave's Folly.

No small consideration was due to one who, in a quiet country town, had accumulated a million dollars.