“Have you rescued the good-looking one from the loveless sea?” he asked sarcastically.
“I have sown the good seed,” she said amiably.
“I never heard of sowing seeds in a loveless sea,” he sneered.
“I have thought up a wonderful scheme. But you will have to help me out. I always fall back on you in an emergency, don’t I?” Eveley’s voice was sweetest honey. “So you must come to dinner.”
“Is the Handsome Member to be among those present?”
“Oh, Nolan, this is our party—to talk things over all by ourselves. It seems such ages since I saw you, and I’ve been so lonesome.”
Nolan was fully aware that this was fabrication, but being totally male, he found himself unable to resist.
“You do not know what lonesomeness is, Eveley. I nearly died. I almost wished I would die. I shall come early, and please wear the blue dress, and be good to me.”
That evening, after a long and satisfying preamble, they sat before her tiny grate with their coffee, and she broached the wonderful plan.
“He is the most utterly married-to-duty thing you ever saw. He says he can not in common decency refuse to marry a girl who has been engaged to him for five years. He hasn’t even seen her for three, and isn’t a bit interested in her. Why, they only write once a month, or so. That’s no love-affair, anybody can see that. But he won’t ask her to let him off, and so we have thought up the most scientific scheme to work it. He is inviting her to come here for a visit, and she is to stay with me. She hates sensible businesslike men, and she adores scatter-brain, fussy ones. So when she comes, he is going to be as poky as duty itself, and wear old grimy clothes, and work day and night, and you are going to don your sunshine apparel and blossom out like a rose, and beau her around in great style. Result, she will fire him, hoping to ensnare you—but don’t you make any mistake and get yourself ensnared for keeps, will you?”