By this time Buddy's admiration had turned to adulation; he had
passed under the yoke and he gloried shamelessly in his captive
state. At supper time he appeared with his hair wetly combed in
imitation of Gray's. He wore a necktie, too, and into it he had
fastened a cheap brass stickpin, much as Gray wore his. During the
meal he watched how the guest used his knife and fork and made
awkward attempts to do likewise, but a table fork was an
instrument which, heretofore, Buddy had looked upon as a weapon of
pure offense, like a whaler's harpoon, and conveniently designed
either for spearing edibles beyond his reach or for retrieving
fragments of meat lurking between his back teeth. He even did some
hasty manicuring under the edge of the table with his jack-knife.

Pa Briskow was scarcely less observant than his son. He watched
Gray's every move; he sounded him out adroitly; he pondered his
lightest word. After the supper things had been cleared away and
the dishes washed, the entire family adjourned to the front room
and again examined the jewelry. It was an absorbing task, they did
not hurry it. Not until the following afternoon, in fact, did they
finally make their selections, and then they were guided almost
wholly by the good taste of their guest. Gray did not exploit
them. On the contrary, his effort was to limit their extravagance;
but in this he had little success, for Pa Briskow had decided to
indulge his generous impulses to the full and insisted upon so
doing. The check he finally wrote was one of five figures.

By this time the visitor had become aware of arousing a queer
reaction in Allegheny Briskow. He had overcome her diffidence
early enough; he had unsealed her lips; he had obtained an insight
into her character; but once that was done, the girl retired