“And what became of them?”

“We don’t know.  Isn’t it ridiculous?”

If it appeared other or more than this to Mrs. Pasmer, she did not say.  She merely said, after a moment, “Well, it was certainly devoted, Alice,” and let her go.

XXVI.

Mavering came in the evening, rather excessively well dressed, and with a hot face and cold hands.  While he waited, nominally alone, in the little drawing room for Mr. Pasmer, Alice flew in upon him for a swift embrace, which prolonged itself till the father’s step was heard outside the door, and then she still had time to vanish by another:  the affair was so nicely adjusted that if Mavering had been in his usual mind he might have fancied the connivance of Mrs. Pasmer.

He did not say what he had meant to say to Alice’s father, but it seemed to serve the purpose, for he emerged presently from the sound of his own voice, unnaturally clamorous, and found Mr. Pasmer saying some very civil things to him about his character and disposition, so far as they had been able to observe it, and their belief and trust in him.  There seemed to be something provisional or probational intended, but Dan could not make out what it was, and finally it proved of no practical effect.  He merely inferred that the approval of his family was respectfully expected, and he hastened to say, “Oh, that’s all right, sir.”  Mr. Pasmer went on with more civilities, and lost himself in dumb conjecture as to whether Mavering’s father had been in the class before him or the class after him in Harvard.  He used his black eyebrows a good deal during the interview, and Mavering conceived an awe of him greater than he had felt at Campobello, yet not unmixed with the affection in which the newly accepted lover embraces even the relations of his betrothed.  From time to time Mr. Pasmer looked about with the vague glance of a man unused to being so long left to his own guidance; and one of these appeals seemed at last to bring Mrs. Pasmer through the door, to the relief of both the men, for they had improvidently despatched their business, and were getting out of talk.  Mr. Pasmer had, in fact, already asked Dan about the weather outside when his wife appeared.

Dan did not know whether he ought to kiss her or not, but Mrs. Pasmer did not in the abstract seem like a very kissing kind of person, and he let himself be guided by this impression, in the absence of any fixed principle applying to the case.  She made some neat remark concerning the probable settlement of the affair with her husband, and began to laugh and joke about it in a manner that was very welcome to Dan; it did not seem to him that it ought to be treated so solemnly.