Donogan’s face, slightly flushed before, became now crimson as he sipped his tea in confusion, unable to utter a word.
‘And so,’ resumed Kearney, ‘he’ll only give us a day to make up our minds! It’s lucky, girls, that you have the telegram there to tell you what’s coming.’
‘It would have been more piquant, papa, if he had made his message say, “I propose for Nina. Reply by wire.”’
‘Or, “May I marry your daughter?” chimed in Nina quickly.
‘There it is, now,’ broke in Kearney, laughing, ‘you’re fighting for him already! Take my word for it, Mr. Daniel, there’s no so sure way to get a girl for a wife, as to make her believe there’s another only waiting to be asked. It’s the threat of the opposition coach on the road keeps down the fares.’
‘Papa is all wrong,’ said Kate. ‘There is no such conceivable pleasure as saying No to a man that another woman is ready to accept. It is about the most refined sort of self-flattery imaginable.’
‘Not to say that men are utterly ignorant of that freemasonry among women which gives us all an interest in the man who marries one of us,’ said Nina. ‘It is only your confirmed old bachelor that we all agree in detesting.’
‘‘Faith, I give you up altogether. You’re a puzzle clean beyond me,’ said Kearney, with a sigh.
‘I think it is Balzac tells us,’ said Donogan, ‘that women and politics are the only two exciting pursuits in life, for you never can tell where either of them will lead you.’
‘And who is Balzac?’ asked Kearney.