“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—­”

“Now, listen, darling,” Alexandra said soothingly, kneeling down and gathering her mother affectionately in her arms, “Owen did every bit of this except the very first second and, if you’ll just forget it, in a few months he’ll be thinking he did it all!  Wait until you see him; he’s walking on air!  He’s dazed.  My dear”—­the strain of happy confidence was running smoothly again—­“my dear, we lunched together, and then we went out in the car to Burning Woods, and sat there on the porch, and talked and talked. It was perfectly wonderful!  Now, he’s gone to tell his mother, but he’s coming back to take us all to dinner.  Is that all right?  And, Mother, that reminds me, we are going to live in the new Settlement House, and have a girl like Justine!”

“What!” Mrs. Salisbury said, smitten sick with disappointment.

“Or Justine herself, if you’ll let us have her,” Sandy went on.  “You see, living in that big Sargent house—­”

“Do you mean that Owen’s mother doesn’t want to give up that house?” Mrs. Salisbury asked coldly.  “I thought it was Owen’s?”

“It is Owen’s, Mother, but fancy living there!” Sandy said vivaciously.  “Why, I’d have to keep seven or eight maids, and do nothing but manage them, and do just as everyone else does!”

“You’d be the richest young matron in town,” her mother said bitterly.