Mary Roberts Rinehart

“ She thought at those times that perhaps he was tired, what with David's work and his own, and sometimes she wondered if he were still worrying about that silly story. But once or twice, after he had gone, she went upstairs and looked carefully into her mirror. Perhaps she had not looked her best that day. Girl-like, she set great value on looks in love. She wanted frightfully to be beautiful to him. She wished she could look like Beverly Carlysle, for instance.
Two days before David and Lucy's departure he had brought her her engagement ring, a square-cut diamond set in platinum. ”

“ She tried, very meekly, to meet his mood; was submissive to his passion and acquiescent to those intervals when he withdrew himself and sat or stood near her, not touching her but watching her intently.
She thought men in love were very queer and quite incomprehensible. ”

“ Lucy came down, flushed from her final effort over the trunks, but gently hospitable.
“It's fish night, Elizabeth,” she said. “You know Minnie's a Catholic, so we always have fish on Friday. I hope you eat it.” She put her hand on Elizabeth's arm and gently patted it, and thus was Elizabeth taken into the old brick house as one of its own.......
Elizabeth was finding this period of her tacit engagement rather puzzling. Her people puzzled her. Even Dick did, at times. And nobody seemed anxious to make plans for the future, or even to discuss the wedding. ”