James laughed. "Yes, it would be difficult for two to walk arm in arm,
however loving," he returned.

"Just so," said the doctor, "and the funny part of it is that this
narrow sidewalk was intentional."

"Not for such a purpose?"

"Exactly so. It was given to the town by a rich spinster who died about
twenty years ago. It was given in her will on condition that it should
not be more than two feet wide."

"For that reason?"

"Just that reason. She had been jilted in her youth, and her heart had
been wrung by the sight of her rival passing her very window where she
sat watching for her lover, arm in arm with him. It was in summer, and
the dirt sidewalk was dry. She made up her mind, then and there, that
that sort of thing should be prevented."

They had just reached a handsome old house standing close to the narrow
sidewalk. In fact, its windows opened directly upon it.

"This is the house," the doctor said in corroboration. James laughed,
but he wondered within himself if he were being told fish tales. Doctor
Gordon made him feel so very young that he resented it. He resented it
the more when he realized the new glow of adoration in his heart for
that older woman whom they had left behind. He began wondering about
her: how much older she was. He said to himself that he did not care if
she were old enough to be his mother, his grandmother even, there was no