Owen Oliver

“ I might have been married to some other fool for—anything from nine years to nine days, if I hadn't been a pig-headed idiot. ... I might now. ..." She shook her fist at the Miss Elizabeth in the looking-glass. "No, you don't!" she said. "You may do all the other fool things, Bet Stone, but marry a man you don't want to, you shan't. It would be a dirty trick upon the man! And upon yourself because. ... Oh, you fool! Get on with your toshy paper!"
She buried herself in the middle pages of The Daily Record. ”

“ VALENTINE!"
By OWEN OLIVER
"DO you know what to-morrow is, Betty?" Miss Elizabeth Stone's niece asked her, when they were going to bed.
"The fourteenth of February," Miss Elizabeth said, "to me. To you I dare say it's Valentine's Day."
"How you do like to make yourself out an old thing!" Marie protested.
"Only a sensible one," Miss Elizabeth assured her. "The plain fact is that I am thirty-two. Thirteen years older than you—almost old enough to be called aunt!" ”

“ This gentleman wants Miss Marie, not me. Transfer him, please."
She hung up the receiver.
"Young donkeys," she sighed. "And once I was one. I suppose I still am, for I was quite fluttered when I thought it might be that owl! ... 'Good morning, Valentine!' I wonder if he says it to his wife! But I heard that she was dead. That was why I thought perhaps ... Bah! I dare say he's got another by now. What does it matter to me? I don't care really. I'm just playing a sentimental stunt with myself. I've practically forgotten all about Norman for—say, nine years and eleven months. ”

“ It's not because I worry about Master Norman that I don't marry, but because I don't happen to want to marry anyone in particular. I wish I did. A woman is entitled to have one man to bully. Wouldn't I just! Well, now for the toshy old paper and the toshy old tea!"
She took up the cup; found the tea cold; spilt some more on the bed-spread; said another naughty word. "I don't know what's the matter with me this morning. I seem to be distinctly profane! It's this rotten paper raking up the silly old past against me! 'Good Morning, Valentine!' May I never hear it again I ... ”

“ Miss Elizabeth said. "I was engaged to him once. ... Marie, if ever you care for a man, don't condemn him without giving him a fair hearing. I did. If I hadn't, I suppose we should have been married for nine years. ... Nine and a half years, Marie. Now I suppose I can't even wear black for him! ... Don't fuss me, child. I shall only cry. ... Do you know, I think it would be a good thing if I could cry." She spoke in a dull, detached voice, as if she discussed someone else. "Say 'Good morning, Valentine!' Then perhaps I can."
"Betty! ... ”

“ And, in its context, tosh of toshes! To vow for ever in the morning, and to take the ring back in the afternoon, just because the girl says a few things in a temper! And I always warned him that I should 'fly out' about once a week through the 'many a year.' Of course I was wrong; but I should often have been wrong through 'the many years.' I always told him so. I expect that's what I shall say if I meet him across the line. Who knows? ... 'I told you so!' That's my probable angelic greeting! ... Nice angel! ”

“ The plain facts—at least, they aren't exactly facts, only the best that we can make out about him—are that he doesn't seem to have done very well for himself. He seems to have lost his wife, and to have a child, and to be pretty poor ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1933, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 90 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”