After a while he asked:
“When shall we be properly engaged, Lettie?”
“Oh, wait till Christmas—till I am twenty-one.”
“Nearly three months! Why on earth——”
“It will make no difference. I shall be able to choose thee of my own free choice then.”
“But three months!”
“I shall consider thee engaged—it doesn’t matter about other people.”
“I thought we should be married in three months.”
“Ah—married in haste——. But what will your mother say?”
“Say! Oh, she’ll say it’s the first wise thing I’ve done. You’ll make a fine wife, Lettie, able to entertain, and all that.”