"What a queenly head she has! What a throat of snow! What an infinite
grace! 'Whether she sits or stands or walks or whatever thing she does,'
she is divine," said Jack.

"She impressed me just that way," said Sedgwick.

"Not too short, not too tall, with just enough flesh and blood to keep
one in mind that while she is divine, she is still a woman," said Jack.

"Only base metal enough to hold the precious metal in place," said
Sedgwick.

So Jack rattled on in the very ecstasy of his love, and so Sedgwick,
quite as deeply involved, replied; the one talking of Rose, the other
of Grace.

At length, however, Sedgwick roused himself and said: "Jack, old boy,
tell me how the old men received you."

"With open arms," said Jack. "My step-father grasped both my hands, said
he was hasty in banishing me as he did, that his heart had been filled
with remorse ever since, that he had sought in vain to find me. And old
man Jenvie, with a hearty welcome and jolly laugh, declared that I served
him exactly right when I floored him; that it had made a better man of
him ever since, and that he was glad to welcome me back to England."

Sedgwick listened, and when Jack ceased speaking there was silence for
a full minute, until Jack said:

"What are you thinking of, Jim?"