Elizabeth Jordan

“ Fate and his hostess were with him. Half a dozen guests entered almost together, Miss Winter among them. Mrs. Perkins caught her glance.
"Will you sit next to Mr. Hapgood, Dorothy?" she asked, "and help him to keep Marjorie in order? She would sit beside him, and I'm afraid that five minutes from now he'll be simply kalsomined with her breakfast food!"
Other duties called her, but if death itself had claimed her now, the radiant young man next to Miss Winter would have remained unmoved. To him, Mrs. Perkins had fulfilled her mission on this earth. ”

“ This was well, for the existence of these barriers steadied the nerves of the impetuous young man, enabling him from time to time to drop a casual word into the ears of vague shadows on his right and left, who also imagined themselves women. ”

“ I've been looking forward to your music all through dinner—and at my age, you know, we don't postpone our pleasures longer than we can help."
Hapgood followed them to the music-room, with several of his fellow-guests, and for an hour listened dreamily and almost happily to Chopin, Richard Strauss, and Grieg. It was not what he wanted, but it was better than seeing her talk to other men; and he could dream that she was playing for him alone, far away, in their own home. ”

“ Marjorie studied it an instant, and her voice sank to a whimper, then was lost in the mug of milk in which she sought to drown her grief. Howe, calmly ignoring the little episode, devoted himself to Dorothy, while Hapgood, choking over his bacon in the place he had taken at the end of the table, looked at his watch and told himself that now, beyond any question, all was indeed lost. His train left in forty minutes, and it would take half an hour to drive to the station. His bag, hat, and coat were in the hall. As others were to take the same train, breakfast was a hurried meal. ”

“ Mercifully, his hostess gave the signal for departure to her women guests, who in another minute had made their rustling exit; and Mr, Hapgood, having crawled under the table for two fans and one pair of gloves, was resting after his exertions and moodily chewing the end of a cigarette.
To propose, yes—but how? In what well-chosen words? They must be few, of course, but just right—the kind of thing that thrilled a girl with the knowledge of a man's tremendous earnestness.
"Dorothy, I cant live without you! Will you trust yourself to me?" ”

“ Man Proposes
BY ELIZABETH JORDAN
BY the count of the hostess, there were twelve at dinner. By that of her youngest man guest, Teddy Hapgood, there was exactly One. Far removed from him, but, fortunately, on the other side of the table, where his adoring eyes could reach and linger on her, Dorothy Winter sat. Though she was so pervadingly present, she seemed in another way incredibly remote. He could hardly realize that she was the girl he had met dozens of times during the past summer, and with whom at first he had chatted and danced and, yes, flirted, too, with heart-free abandon. ”

“ Teddy thanked her gloomily. He hadn't much faith in the after-dinner promise, or, for that matter, in the breakfast plan. Half the guests were leaving on early morning trains, and the women would have their hats on and would all talk at once about engagements for dress-fittings in town. There was sure to be an indescribable atmosphere of confusion and haste around the table—not at all the right scene for an avowal to the One Woman. However, if breakfast was all he could get, he would take it. Besides, there was still to-night. But what did Howe want to say to her? ”