“Not yet,” said Rose.
“Any one else?”
“One or two,” she replied.
“I suppose a great many men come to that shop?” I said.
“Oh yes. They’re very jolly too, some of them, until they fall in love; and then they’re so dull. Isn’t it funny what a difference it makes? And then they propose and I lose them.”
And I, I thought to myself, have lost Rose! Is loss the rule of life? It seems to be.
It was on one of Rose’s week-end visits just before she was twenty that she took out a photograph and handed it to me. The photograph was an amateur snapshot of a group on a lawn, among whom was Rose.
“Quite good of you,” I said.
“No,” she said. “It wasn’t me that I wanted you to look at, but the man behind me.”
It is strange what effect the most ordinary words can sometimes have! Rose’s were casual enough, but my heart absolutely stopped for a moment and a mist crossed my brain. God knows I did not want to keep this child from marriage; her engagement would even be a blessing in disguise, for it would bring her back to her home; but her remark none the less was like a knell.