“Gentlemen, I have heard my uncle say, that Tom Smart said the widow’s lamentations when she heard the disclosure would have pierced a heart of stone. Tom was certainly very tenderhearted, but they pierced his, to the very core. The widow rocked herself to and fro, and wrung her hands.

“ ‘Oh, the deception and villainy of the man!’ said the widow.

“ ‘Frightful, my dear ma’am; but compose yourself,’ said Tom Smart.

“ ‘Oh, I can’t compose myself,’ shrieked the widow. ‘I shall never find anyone else I can love so much!’

“ ‘Oh, yes you will, my dear soul,’ said Tom Smart, letting fall a shower of the largest-sized tears, in pity for the widow’s misfortunes. Tom Smart, in the energy of his compassion, had put his arm round the widow’s waist; and the widow, in a passion of grief, had clasped Tom’s hand. She looked up in Tom’s face, and smiled through her tears. Tom looked down in hers, and smiled through his.