"I've had that!" interrupted the bachelor.
"Had—what?"
"The 'love-lump' in the throat."
"And did you ever go up stairs to light the gas and turn on the water instead; or walk three blocks in the wrong direction without knowing it; or hunt ten minutes for your shoes and then discover it was your collar button or your hat that you had lost?"
"Or add a column of figures and get a poem for the answer; or break your neck running to the office and then have to sit down and think what you came down early for; or begin a business letter 'Dearest Smith' and drop it in the box without a stamp, or read your paper upside down, or——"
"You've got it!" cried the widow.
"I know it," sighed the bachelor, "dreadfully!"
"The idea, I mean," said the widow, blushing. "Those are the real proofs of love."
"But," protested the bachelor, "they aren't impressive. How are you going to let the girl know——"
"A girl always knows," declared the widow.