Schools and Schools by O. Henry

It is a common custom to refer to the usual complication between one man and two ladies, or one lady and two men, or a lady and a man and a nobleman, or -- well, any of those problems -- as the triangle. But they are never unqualified triangles. They are always isosceles -- never equilateral. So, upon the coming of Nevada Warren, she and Gilbert and Barbara Ross lined up into such a figurative triangle; and of that triangle Barbara formed the hypotenuse.

One morning old Jerome was lingering long after breakfast over the dullest morning paper in the city before setting forth to his downtown flytrap. He had become quite fond of Nevada, finding in her much of his dead brother's quiet independence and unsuspicious frankness.