's the whole point, or rather he
DIDN'T, for he does now! And he'll go on caring more and more every
minute, you'll see! He might have been months finding it out, even if
he didn't go off to New York with Jim, and marry some little designing
dolly-mop of an actress, or some girl he met on the train. Owen's the
sort of dear, big, old, blundering fellow that you have to PROTECT,
Mother. And it came up so naturally--if you'd been there--"

"I thank Heaven I was not there!" Mrs. Salisbury said feelingly. "Came
up naturally! Alexandra, what are you MADE of? Where are your natural
feelings? Why, do you realize that your Grandmother Porter kept your
grandfather waiting three months for an answer, even? She lived to be
an old, old lady, and she used to say that a woman ought never let her
husband know how much she cared for him, and Grandfather Porter
RESPECTED and ADMIRED your grandmother until the day of her death!"

"A dear, cold-blooded old lady she must have been!" said Alexandra,
unimpressed.

"On the contrary," Mrs. Salisbury said quickly. "She was a beautiful
and dignified woman. And when your father first began to call upon me,"
she went on impressively, "and Mattie teased me about him, I was so
furious--my feelings were so outraged!--that I went upstairs and cried
a whole evening, and wouldn't see him for DAYS!"

"Well, dearest," Alexandra said cheerfully, "You may have been a
perfect little lady, but it's painfully evident that I take after the
other side of the house! As for Owen ever having the nerve to suggest
that I gave him a pretty broad hint--" the girl's voice was carried
away on a gale of cheerful laughter. "He'd get no dessert for weeks to
come!" she threatened gaily. "You know I'm convinced, Mother," Sandy
went on more seriously, "that this business of a man's doing all the
asking is going out. When women have their own industrial freedom, and
their own well-paid work, it'll be a great compliment to suggest to a
man that one's willing to give everything up, and keep his house and
raise his children for him. And if, for any reason, he SHOULDN'T care
for that girl, she'll not be embarrassed--"

Mrs. Salisbury shut her eyes, her face and form rigid, one hand
spasmodically clutching the couch.

"Alexandra, I BEG--" she said faintly, "I ENTREAT that you will not
expect me to listen to such outrageous and indelicate and COARSE--yes,
coarse!--theories! Think what you will, but don't ask your mother--"

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