"As a man with no direction anywhere near a kitchen, I can certainly be bribed with food." His housekeeper kept him well-fed, but mostly out of duty and not for much love of him. She worried, he could tell, but he wasn't the easiest person to be in close quarters with (though he was working on it). Hopefully he would get himself together enough, and having Effie in the house, if she accepted his proposal, would lighten the mood of the house itself.

The mention of the woman who ran Effie's boarding house gave him pause though. "I think she hates me," he had only stopped by to call, at appropriate hours, on a few occasions in the past, but she always gave him such a stare. The parlor of the boarding house hardly felt like the place for his plans, but would it be crossing a line to invite her to his? Surely it would be fine? "Could I tempt you with one of Mrs. Coleman's pies in my parlor?" His own housekeeper was quite the baker, even if she consistently gave him a hard time about his messiness.