She
overdoes things, the good woman. All the same, there's no smoke without
fire. You know what actually did happen, don't you? Well; one really
doesn't quite know what to make of a fellow like that, does one?"
What had happened?
The bibliographer had fallen in love, after the fashion of a
pure-minded, gallant gentleman. It was his first and only experience of
this kind--an all-consuming passion which did much credit to his heart
but little to his head. So deeply were his feelings involved that
during those brief months of infatuation he neglected, he despised, he
derided his idol Perrelli. He put on a new character. While the dust
was accumulating on those piles of footnotes, Mr. Eames astonished
people by becoming a society man. It was a transfiguration. He appeared
in fancy ties and spats, fluttered about at boating parties and
picnics, dined at restaurants, perpetrated one or two classic jokes
about the sirocco. Nepenthe opened its eyes wide till the truth was
made manifest. After that, everybody said he might have discovered a
worthier object for his affection than the "BALLOON CAPTIF.
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