"Have you ever thought much about lovers?" Elizabeth said.
Peggy blushed. "Have you?"
"Not about my own. That is, I mean not about anybody I ever knew or saw, but have you ever thought about anybody else having a lover? Any relation of yours?"
"About Ruthie, yes, but I don't believe she would ever really care about that. Except in a very friendly way. All the engaged people I ever knew were so mushy! I can't imagine Ruth being mushy."
"I never think about the engaged people I know. That isn't what I call being engaged—the way people are engaged. I always think of the way people in books get engaged, and that makes it easier to imagine."
"Yes, it does. That would be the only way Ruth would ever do it. But I don't think she would."
"Do you think she would be the kind of girl to get engaged by letter?"
"Well, I don't know. I don't like to think about her getting engaged. She's too useful around the house. You wouldn't like to think of your brother being engaged, would you?"
"I might, if he were very unhappy."
"Well, don't you worry about your brother being unhappy. The thing about being grown up is that you can do just about what you please. If a man wants to get married, he can do it, when he's as old as that."