Well, I was able to borrow some money, and with it I bought a few flowers for Dori and a quantity of the rawest, cheapest whiskey I could find. I had recognized the symptoms of the sot in the old man's pouchy face and shaking hands.
The Ringo Hotel was a run-down place in the eastern sector of town. The old man was not especially glad to see me when I appeared early that evening, but his attitude changed quickly when I unwrapped the liquor. Within an hour he was dead drunk and snoring on the bed.
Dori drank nothing, and I drank just enough to loosen my tongue and my inhibitions. It was not the sort of romantic atmosphere I would have preferred, with the two of us facing each other in hard, straight-backed chairs, the bare light bulb glaring down on us and the old souse snorting away in his drunken dreams; but I was determined not to let this opportunity escape me.
I talked my way carefully, without making any precipitous advances or suggestions, and I soon learned one inescapable fact. Dori had no love left for her father and would leave him in a moment; but her long-dead mother had instilled in her a rigid morality that left no door open for an informal association, no matter how attractive I made it. There was one course open to me.
"Dori," I said, "I have never married because all my life I have been waiting for the woman to appear whom I knew would be right for me. When I saw you, I thought you were that woman and now I know. Will you marry me?"
Now, would you think any woman would consider such a proposal seriously from a man she had met eight hours before, especially a sedate, conventional woman like Dori? It was an indication of her hatred of the life she led that she did not even glance at the old man on the bed.
Her answer was in the light that flooded her thin face. In that moment, she was beautiful.
I had made fast work of my courtship of Dori, and I made fast work of the task of getting rid of her father. After our marriage, I gave him enough money to get blind drunk, and then we left town in a hurry. As much as she had grown to detest the old bum, Dori did not particularly approve of this trick, but she had surrendered to a love for me so complete she was willing to do anything I asked without question. I understand he died in jail soon afterward.
Our match was not an unhappy one. I have no great capacity for affection, but I was not cruel to Dori. To win her in a hurry, I had had to convince her I was desperately in love with her, and it was to my interest to continue the illusion.