In this chapter, the narrator tells the story of a thirty-year-old "gay bachelor" who was "gentlely extinguished" by his mother. The "unmarriageable" plan was finally "compromised" by the mother, who "shed a few tears" and "contemptuously compromised" . The narrator is sorry that his mother is so soft-hearted, but he is not a "hardy" person. He tells his mother that he hasn't told her the whole story because he doesn't want her to suspect that he and her brother are engaged. He also tells her that his brother suspected that they were "a couple or not" , but that he didn't know how to react to the news. He says that he will take a call on his mother first, and then he will tell her the full story.