Mr. Widden could have supplied her with many reasons, but he refrained, and sat in sulky silence while Mr. Letts got ready. From his point of view the experiment was by no means a success, his efforts to be natural being met with amazed glances from Mr. Letts and disdainful requests from Miss Foster to go home if he couldn't behave himself. When he relapsed into moody silence Mr. Letts cleared his throat and spoke.
“There's no need to be like a monkey-on-a-stick, and at the same time there's no need to be sulky,” he pointed out; “there's a happy medium.”
“Like you, I s'pose?” said the frantic suitor. “Like me,” said the other, gravely. “Now, you watch; fall in behind and watch.”
He drew Miss Foster's arm through his and, leaning towards her with tender deference, began a long conversation. At the end of ten minutes Mr. Widden intimated that he thought he had learned enough to go on with.
“Ah! that's only your conceit,” said Mr. Letts over his shoulder. “I was afraid you was conceited.”
He turned to Miss Foster again, and Mr. Widden, with a despairing gesture, abandoned himself to gloom. He made no further interruptions, but at the conclusion of the walk hesitated so long on the door-step that Mr. Letts had to take the initiative.
“Good-night,” he said, shaking hands. “Come round to-morrow night and I'll give you another lesson. You're a slow learner, that's what you are; a slow learner.”
He gave Mr. Widden a lesson on the following evening, but cautioned him sternly against imitating the display of brotherly fondness of which, in a secluded lane, he had been a wide-eyed observer.
“When you've known her as long as I have—nineteen years,” said Mr. Letts, as the other protested, “things'll be a bit different. I might not be here, for one thing.”
By exercise of great self-control Mr. Widden checked the obvious retort and walked doggedly in the rear of Miss Foster. Then, hardly able to believe his ears, he heard her say something to Mr. Letts.