After a long pause

Finally, he went to PatO'Shea. The old soldier showed his teeth in a grimace
that was as close as he could any longer come to a real smile. Then he sobered
and said bluntly, "Milo, time was when I felt just like you do, but I knows
different, now; indeed I do. If I hadn't had my Maggie when I come home like I
am from the war, God alone knows what would've become of me. And a man never
knows whatall is going to happen to him, Milo, peace or war, day or night, one
minute to the next, so I say when you got the chance to get hitched up to a
good, strong woman like that, even if looks ain't her best suit, do it afore she
changes her mind. Marry her, Miio."

After a long pause, he added, "But if you really are dead set against the
institution of marriage in gen'rul and you want to get somewheres where she
can't come after you and fetch you back to the altar, let me know and I'll have
you enlisted in the Army and on a train out of Illinois in two shakes of a
lamb's tail."

Chapter III

On the 12th of August, Maggie O'Shea received a telegram the receipt of which
was to change the course of Milo's life for good and all. Taking both of her
daughters out of nursing school, she and they hurriedly packed and entrained for
Boston, Massachusetts, and the bedside of her last living relative, a deathly
ill aunt. Pat O'Shea, who studiously avoided any public appearance at which he
could not hide his hideously disfigured face, stayed behind.

Irunn had been badgering Milo for weeks concerning just exactly when he would
accompany her to Wisconsin to meet her family梐nd, he was certain, while there,
be maneuvered into asking for her hand ... or at least give the appearance of
having so done. He had been elusive and vague at best, blaming heavy commitments
in his work, which was no lie, the recent volume of Western and Central European
periodicals having so increased that he now lacked the time at the library to
get very much of his history and current-events reading done, spending whole
days from opening to closing of the facility translating and writing out the
articles in American English. With the swollen volume and a limited budget, the
per-word rate had had to be halved, but still Milo was assured of a very good,
well-stuffed envelope each week.