Sunny Slopes Part 26

"He looked at me critically and gave my age a smile.

"'I am very much in favor of marriage, and families, and such things.

I want one myself. And if I don't hurry up, I'll have to adopt it.

There's an age limit, you know.'"

"'Age limit,' he exploded.

"'I think I shall have a winter wedding, a white one, along in January.

Not in December, it might interfere with my Christmas presents.'

"'Connie--'

"'I am going to be very systematic about it. In this note-book I am making a list of all the nice Mount Markers. I couldn't think of any myself right offhand, so I had to resort to the directory. Now I shall go through the list and grade them. Some are black-marked right at the start. Those that sound reasonable, I shall try out. The one that makes good, I shall marry. I've got to hurry, too. My vacation only lasts a week, and I have to work on my trousseau a little. It's lots of fun. I am perfectly fascinated with it.'

"Dan had nothing to say. He looked at me with that blankness of incomprehension that must be maddening in a man after you are married to him."

Carol squeezed David's hand and gurgled rapturously. This was her great delight, to get Connie talking, so cleverly, of her variegated and cosmopolitan love-affairs.

"'I suppose you are surprised,' I said kindly, 'and naturally you think it rather queer. You mustn't let any one know. Mount Mark could never comprehend such modernity. I feel very advanced, myself. I want to spring up and shout, "Votes for Women" or "Up with the Red Flag," or "Villa Forever," or something else outspoken and b.l.o.o.d.y.'"

Carol and David shook with laughter, silently, not to interrupt the story.

"'How about love, Connie?' suggested Dan, meekly.

"'I believe in love, absolutely. That is my strongest point. As soon as I find a champion, I am going to concentrate all my energy and all my talent on falling dead in love with him.'

"'Have you found any eligibles yet?'

"'Yes, Harvey Grath, and Robert Ingersoll, and Cal Keith, and Doctor Meredith.'

"'Where do I come in?'

"'Oh, we know each other too well,' I said with discouraging promptness. 'The real fascination in getting married is the novelty of it. There wouldn't be any novelty in marrying you. I know as much about you as your mother does. Eggs fried over, meat well done, no gravy, breakfast in bed Sunday morning, sporting pages first,--it would be like marrying father. Now I must get to work, Danny, so you'd better trot along and not bother me. And you must keep away evenings unless you have a date in advance. You might interrupt something if you bob in unannounced.'

"'May I have a date this evening?' he asked with high hauteur.

"'So sorry, Danny, I have a date with Cal Keith.' I consulted the note-book. 'To-morrow night Doctor Meredith. Thursday night, Buddy Johnson.'

"'Friday then?'

"'Yes, Friday.'

"The next time he saw me, he said first thing, which proved he had been thinking seriously, 'I suppose it will be the end of my hanging around here if you get married.'

"Evidently he thought I would contradict him. But I didn't.

"'I am afraid so,' I admitted. 'My husband will be so fearfully jealous! He will be so crazy about me that he won't allow another man to come within a mile of me.'

"Dan snorted. 'You don't know how crazy he'll be about you.'

"'Oh, yes, I do, for when I pick him out, I'll see to that part of it.

That will be easy. It is picking him out that is hard.'

"You know how Dan is, Carol. He is very fond of the girls, especially me, and he makes love in a sort of semi-fas.h.i.+on, but he never really wanted to get married. He liked to be a bachelor. He noticed how other men ran down after marriage, and he didn't want to run down. He saw how so many girls went to seed after marriage, and he didn't want them to belong to him. 'Let well enough alone, you fool,' was his philosophy. I knew it. He had told me about it often, and I always said it was sound good sense.

"The second afternoon I told him I was going to wear white lace to be married in, and had picked out my bridesmaids. I asked him where would be a nice place to go for a honeymoon, and he flung himself home in a huff, and said it was none of his business where I went but he suggested New London or Danville. I showed no annoyance when he left so abruptly. I was too busy. I drew my feet up under me and went on making notes in my red book. He looked out from behind the windows of the dining-room, carefully concealed of course, but I saw him. I could hear him nearly having apoplexy when he saw me utterly and blissfully absorbed in my book."

Carol chuckled in ecstasy. She foresaw that Connie was practically engaged to Dan, a prince of a fellow, and she was so glad. That little scamp of a Connie, to keep it secret so long.

"Oh," she cried, "I always thought you loved each other."

"So?" asked Connie coolly. "Dan admitted he was surprised that my plans worked so easily. Before that he had been my escort on every occasion, and the town accepted it blandly. Now I had a regular series of attendants, and Dan was relegated to a few spare moments under the lilacs now and then. He couldn't see how I got hold of the fellows.

He said they were perfect miffs to be nosed around like that. Why didn't they show some manhood? Boneless, brainless jelly fishes, jumping head first because a little snip of a girl said jump.

"The third day I called him on the phone.

"'Dan, come over quick. I have the loveliest thing to show you.'

"He did not wait for a hat. He dashed out and over the hedge, and I had the door open for him.

"'Oh, look,' I gurgled. I am not a very good gurgler, but sometimes you just have to do it.

"Dan looked. 'Nothing but silverware, is it?'

"I was hurt. 'Nothing but silverware? Why, it is my silverware, for my own little house. It cost a terribly, criminally lot, but I couldn't resist it. I really feel much more settled since I bought it.

There is something very final about silverware. See these pretty doilies I am making. Aunt Grace is crocheting a bedspread for me, too.

Those are guest towels,--they were given to me.'

"Dan's lips curled scornfully. He turned the lovely linens roughly, and wiped his hands on a dainty guest towel.

"'Connie, this is downright immodest. Furnis.h.i.+ng your house before you have a lover!'

"'Do you think so?' I kissed a circular hand-embroidered table-cloth.

'If I had known it was such fun furnis.h.i.+ng my house, I'd have had the lover years ago and don't you forgit it.'

"'I am disappointed in you.'

"'I am sorry,' I said lightly. 'But I am so excited over getting married, that I can't bother much about what mere friends think any more. My husband's opinions--'

"'Mere friends,' he shouted. 'Mere friends! I am no mere friend, Connie Starr. I'M--I'M--'

"'Yes, what are you?'

"Well, I am your pal, your chum, your old schoolmate, your best friend,--'

"'Oh, that was before I was engaged.'

"'Engaged?' Dan was staggered. 'Are you really engaged then? Have you found the right one?'