Page:Emily Climbs.pdf/314

an echo of that ‘random word’ of the gods—and I wanted some unused language to express what I saw and felt.

“Enter Andrew, spic and span, prim and gentlemanly.

“Fauns—fairies—wonder moments—random words—fled pell-mell. No new language was needed now.

"What a pity side-whiskers went out with the last generation—they would suit him so,’ I said to myself in good plain English.

“I knew Andrew had come to say something special. Otherwise he would not have followed me into the Land of Uprightness, but have waited decorously in Aunt Ruth’s parlour. I knew it had to come and I made up my mind to get it over and have done with it. The expectant attitude of Aunt Ruth and the New Moon folks has been oppressive lately. I believe they all feel quite sure that the real reason I wouldn’t go to New York was that I couldn’t bear to part with Andrew!

“But I was not going to have Andrew propose to me by moonlight in the Land of Uprightness. I might have been bewitched into accepting him. So when he said, ‘It’s nice here, let’s stay here for a while—after all, I think there is nothing so pretty as nature,’ I said gently but firmly that, though nature must feel highly flattered, it was too damp for a person with a tendency to consumption, and I must go in.

“In we went. I sat down opposite Andrew and stared at a bit of Aunt Ruth’s crochet yarn on the carpet. I shall remember the colour and shape of that yarn to my dying day. Andrew talked jerkily about indifferent things and then began throwing out hints—he would get his managership in two years more—he believed in people marrying young—and so on. He floundered badly. I suppose I could have made it easier for him but I hardened my heart, remembering how he had kept away in those dreadful weeks of the John house scandal. At last he blurted out,

“‘Emily, let’s get married when—when—as soon as I’m able to.’