rom her; and so, gauging her child's
feelings by her own, she steadfastly refused to look at her lest the
shocked surprise in her eyes might lacerate the girl she loved, and
who she knew must at the instant be in a sufficient agony----
Undoubtedly the man was suggesting that he wanted to marry her
daughter, and the unexpectedness of such a proposal left her mentally
gaping; but that there must have been some preliminaries of meeting
and courtship became obvious to her. Mary also listened to his remarks
in a stupor. Was there no possibility at all of getting away from the
man? A tenacity such as this seemed to her malignant. She had the
feeling of one being pursued by some relentless and unscrupulous
hunter. She heard him speaking through a cloud, and the only things
really clear to her were the thoughts which she knew her mother must
be thinking. She was frightened and ashamed, and the sullenness which
is the refuge of most young people descended upon her like a darkness.
Her face grew heavy and vacant, and she stared in front of her in the
attitude of one who had nothing to do with what was passing. She did
not believe altogether that he was in earnest: her immediate
discomfort showed him as one who was merely seeking to get her into
trouble with her mother in order to gratify an impotent rage. Twice or
three times she flamed suddenly, went tiptoe to run from the room. A
flash, and she would be gone from the place, down the stairs, into the
streets and away anywhere, and she tingled with the very speed of her
vision; but she knew that one word from her mother would halt her like
a barrier, and she hated the thought that he should be a witness to
her obedience.

While he was speaking he did not look at Mary. He told Mrs.
Makebelieve that he loved her daughter very much, and he begged her
permission and favor for his suit. He gave her to understand that he
and Mary had many opportunities of becoming acquainted, and were at
one in this desire for matrimony---- To Mrs. Makebelieve's mind there
recurred a conversation which she had once held with her daughter,
when Mary was curious to know if a policeman was a desirable person
for a girl to marry? She saw this question now, not as being prompted
by a laudable, an almost scientific curiosity, but as the interested,
sly speculation of a schemer hideously accomplished in deceit. Mary
could see that memory flitting back through her mother's brain, and it
tormented her. Nor was