Bachelors have these black moments, and it is then that the abstract
wife comes into her own. To Kirk, brooding in the dusk, the figure of
the abstract wife seemed to grow less formidable, the fact that she
might not get on with Hank Jardine of less importance.

The revolutionary thought that life was rather a bore, and would become
more and more of a bore as the years went on, unless he had some one to
share it with, crept into his mind and stayed there.

He shivered. These were unpleasant thoughts, and in his hour of clear
vision he knew whence they came. They were entirely due to the
knowledge that, instead of sitting comfortably at home, he would be
compelled in a few short hours to go out and get dinner at some
restaurant. To such a pass had he come in the twenty-sixth year of his
life.

Once the gods have marked a bachelor down, they give him few chances of
escape. It was when Kirk's mood was at its blackest, and the figure of
the abstract wife had ceased to be a menace and become a shining angel
of salvation, that Lora Delane Porter, with Ruth Bannister at her side,
rang the studio bell.

Kirk went to the door. He hoped it was a tradesman; he feared it was a
friend. In his present state of mind he had no use for friends. When he
found himself confronting Mrs. Porter he became momentarily incapable
of speech. It had not entered his mind that she would pay him a second
visit. Possibly it was joy that rendered him dumb.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Winfield," said Mrs. Porter. "I have come to