Mrs.
Linley was his one surviving child.

He died at an advanced age; leaving his handsome widow (young enough, as she was always ready to mention, to be his daughter) well provided for, and an object of matrimonial aspiration to single gentlemen who admired size in a woman, set off by money.

After hesitating for some little time, Mrs.Norman accepted the proposal of the ugliest and dullest man among the ranks of her admirers.
Why she became the wife of Mr.Presty (known in commercial circles as a merchant enriched by the sale of vinegar) she was never able to explain.
Why she lamented him, with tears of sincere sorrow, when he died after two years of married life, was a mystery which puzzled her nearest and dearest friends.

And why when she indulged (a little too frequently) in recollections of her married life, she persisted in putting obscure Mr.
Presty on a level with distinguished Mr.Norman, was a secret which this remarkable woman had never been known to reveal.

Presented by their widow with the strictest impartiality to the general view, the characters of these two husbands combined, by force of contrast, the ideal of manly perfection.