" The gigantic lettering arose in his mind's
eye, like the cross in Constantine's. He had never seen the drama, and
he did not know to what extent Ruy Gomez pushed his audacity, and won
the Countess by it. But the name of the drama held the moral of it; and
the moral, as applied to Bog's case, was: "Stop at this corner, and take
a good view of the, house." To do this, in Bog's opinion, was the height
of boldness. But he thought of the huge parti-colored lettering, and
he did it.
He stopped at the corner, and leaned recklessly against a hydrant. He
looked at the house with a deliberation that amazed himself. At the same
time, as a matter of instinctive caution, he kept his left leg well out
toward the side street, so that he might retreat, should the door
suddenly open and disclose the seraphic vision. He consulted his large
bull's-eye silver watch (a capital timekeeper), and found that it was
half past three o'clock, and he never knew her to be out before four.
This reflection emboldened him. "Faint Heart Ne'er Won Fair Lady," he
thought again, and brought back his left leg to an easy position,
crossing it with his right one against the hydrant.
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