I Make an Engagement

"I didn't know they ever grew up so fast,-in a day
and a night!"

I was glad I remembered the number of beads in her
chain; the item seemed at once to become important.

"It's the air, I suppose. It's praised by excellent
critics, as you may learn from the catalogue."

"But you are going to an ampler ether, a diviner air.
You have attained the beatific state and at once take
flight. If they confer perfection like an academic degree
at St. Agatha's, then-"

I had never felt so stupidly helpless in my life.
There were a thousand things I wished to say to her;
there were countless questions I wished to ask; but her
calmness and poise were disconcerting. She had not,
apparently, the slightest curiosity about me; and there
was no reason why she should have-I knew that well
enough! Her eyes met mine easily; their azure depths
puzzled me. She was almost, but not quite, some one I
had seen before, and it was not my woodland Olivia.
Her eyes, the soft curve of her cheek, the light in
her hair,-but the memory of another time, another
place, another girl, lured only to baffle me.

She laughed,-a little murmuring laugh.

"I'll never tell if you won't," she said.

"But I don't see how that helps me with you?"

"It certainly does not! That is a much more serious
matter, Mr. Glenarm."

"And the worst of it is that I haven't a single thing
to say for myself. It wasn't the not knowing that was
so utterly stupid-"