Response # 2 "yearnings of a bachelor..."

44: "yearnings of a bachelor..." plausible? his proposal

       In order to tell a successful lie it needs to be sewn together with bits of truth. That's exactly what the protagonist is doing while "courting" the widow. He is harboring the emotions he has for her daughter and transferring them onto her mother.
       His manipulation skills come alive within this passage. By admitting his, "yearnings of a bachelor who looks with envy at the tailcoat and misty aura of another's wedding and thinks involuntarily of the lonely grave at the end of his lonely road, he concluded the time had come to call the packers" (26). By showing so much vulnerability to the widow the predator has gained her trust by tricking her into pitying him.
       This was a vital move in the protagonist's chess game; gaining the widow's trust and proposing to her was check mate. All the man has to do from this point is wait patiently before he can reap the benefits. The girl's mother was her last defense against this predator, and she was so easily fooled. As soon as the widow let her defenses rest and allowed this wolf into the hen house my stomach dropped.