Alice Duer Miller

“ The refrigerator was driven away. Mrs. Devalon recalled the fact that her uncle was growing neglectful; the cook, that her present ice-box was a disgrace.
Beyond sowing these seeds of discontent, the incident was closed; but it had been fraught with danger. Bettina and Exeter were more careful thereafter. They were not without a sense of humor, and knew their position was ludicrous, yet could not on that account make up their minds to change it. The deadly word "marriage" could sweep aside every attitude but terror. ”

“ In a strange house, called by an unaccustomed name, sustaining a new relation to a woman with whom she had never been intimate, Bettina scarcely recognized herself, and could not at all focus Exeter in the strange man whose name she bore. To be married out of hand was the last fate in the world she had expected to overtake her. ”

“ If you should find me unsatisfactory——"
"I fancy if one is really in love," replied Bettina, who was not entirely pleased with some of the assumptions of his last remark, "one finds nothing unsatisfactory; but as, of course, I do not feel——"
"Exactly," interrupted Frost, "you can't make up your mind. I knew how you stood. Well, I don't see why, if we go on like this, we—you, I mean—should ever be able to come to a decision, and so I have a scheme to propose—I suggest that we enter into a conditional engagement." ”

“ He never could see why men with not half so much intensity advanced without impediment—at least without impediments from within. Knowing the conflict within himself, he grew to put all his hope of ultimate triumph in the strength of his emotion, and actually grew to pride himself upon it, although he had reached the age of thirty without having had sufficient confidence in its permanence to ask any woman to marry him. ”

“ The news was not unexpected, and the match was agreeable to the family, so Bettina merely observed that she supposed they were very happy.
"Yes, they are happy. Their only trouble is that they have to wait. Her mother won't let her be married for a year."
At this Bettina allowed herself to smile a trifle superciliously, sure of her companion's sympathy. She was aware that the fiancés had not known each other long, and a year, according to her views, was a short time in which to make sure of their feelings. But Exeter gave back no answering smile. ”

“ I was jealous, my good young woman, bitingly jealous, and if you had talked ten minutes longer to that good-looking young horseman in that appealing manner of yours, I would have sworn that women should be kept behind bars—that Turks are the only wise men. ”

“ It had been specially designed and built for a gentleman whose exquisite taste pervaded all departments of his household, but he had unfortunately lost all his money just as the refrigerator was completed, and it had been left on the maker's hands. Bettina and Exeter were forced to the conclusion that if they were connoisseurs he had been an artist, as device after device, insuring health and convenience, was revealed by the shopman. ”

“ In two weeks she might be allowed an interview.
She went without protest. To tell the truth, a confusion reigned in her being such as her well-ordered young life had never before known, and she was not sorry for a little respite. Of course, there had been a certain recklessness in the permitting of even a conditional engagement ”