The Strange Proposal Read Online Free PDF Page B

I am it is Jeffrey she married instead of that other man I was so afraid she would take. Oh, God is good!”
    And so the discussion ended, and presently the light was out and the two women lay quiet with their own thoughts.
    Down the hall a few doors, Warren Wainwright was struggling with the collar buttons of his dress shirt.
    “Who’s that chap Mary Liz was running round with tonight, Fannie? What do you know about him?” he said as he conquered the button at last and flung his collar down upon the bureau, drawing a relieved breath as his constricted flesh relaxed in his puffy pink neck.
    “Why,” said Mrs. Warren Wainwright placidly as she unwound the heavy ropes of pearls from her own ample neck and took a satisfied look at the frock she had been wearing all the evening, noting that it was exceedingly becoming, “why, he’s one of Jeff’s friends. Jeff speaks very highly of him. He told me he’s very scholarly and very keen. He’s going to be some special kind of doctor, I think, though I believe has hasn’t much money at present.”
    “Mary Liz has enough money of her own, of course,” growled the uncle, “but I’d like to see her happy. I wouldn’t like to see Mary Liz get some puppy she’d have to divorce in a few months, or years. I’m very fond of Mary Liz. She’s a fine girl!”
    “Yes, of course,” said Mary Elizabeth’s aunt, yawning delicately and placidly, “but you know Mary Elizabeth can look out for herself, and she always will.”
    “Yes, and that’s the very reason we ought to find out about that chap and manage somehow to get her away from his vicinity, if necessary, till he lays off her, if he isn’t all right. Where is he staying, anyway? I saw how he looked at her when they came down the aisle. I’m not so old I don’t know what a look like that in a man’s eyes means.”
    “Why, he’s left already,” said Aunt Fannie, beginning to take down her hair and wishing she hadn’t sent her maid to bed.
    “What?” said Uncle Warren Wainwright sharply. “He’s left already? I don’t think much of him for that!”
    “Why, you were just worrying about him staying around,” laughed Aunt Fannie. “And very likely that Mary Elizabeth turned him down anyway. You know her! Besides, I saw her wearing a perfectly gorgeous diamond on her left hand just before she went down to the church. I think it came from Boothby Farwell, I really do. I saw the white case it came in lying on her bureau, and it came from Tiffany’s. There’s been a rumor around about them for months, and I suppose it’s settled at last.”
    “Hmm!” said Uncle Warren, relieving himself of his dress shirt. “He’s too old for her! And by the way, he wasn’t here, was he?”
    “Jeff doesn’t like him!” said Aunt Fannie in her placid tone.
    “Hmm!” said Uncle Warren again. “The little jade! Well, she’s bound to have a good time wherever she goes, isn’t she?” And he laughed grimly. “Even if she is engaged, she’ll have her little fling!”
    “Now, Warren,” said Aunt Fannie, “I don’t think you’re fair to Mary Elizabeth. She isn’t a flirt. She really isn’t. She’s just friends with them all.”
    “Yes, I know,” said Uncle Warren. “I’m not blaming her. But I hope she keeps ’em all just friends till one comes along fine enough for her. She’s a sweet girl.”
    “Yes, she is!” agreed the aunt.
    “That’s what I’m saying about this chap, Saxon, is that the name? Queer name. We must look him up. Get Jeff to give us his credentials when he gets back. That is, if she hasn’t forgotten him by that time! But somehow I don’t think she’ll forget him so soon. I shouldn’t if I were a girl.”
    “You don’t know what you’d do if you were a girl, Warren. Now go to bed. You know we’ve got to take a journey in the morning,” soothed Aunt Fannie.
    And very soon in that room also all was quiet.
    But Mary Elizabeth lay in her bed with her eyes wide, her cheeks burning,