“No, no,” she replied quickly. “It’s only when I get serious and––please don’t let’s be serious.”
The rest of the dinner was very satisfactory, 122 for he left her nothing to do but sit back and enjoy herself. And he made her laugh, sharing with him his laughter. It was half-past ten when they arose and went out upon the street. There she kept right on forgetting. It was not until she stood in her room, half-undressed, that she remembered she had not told Pendleton that to-night was positively to bring to an end this impossible friendship.
CHAPTER XII
A SOCIAL WIDOW
With the approach of the holiday season, when pretty nearly every one comes back to town, Frances found her engagements multiplying so rapidly that it required a good deal of tact and not a little arithmetic to keep them from conflicting. In this emergency, when she really needed Don, not only was he of no practical help, but he further embarrassed her by announcing a blanket refusal of all afternoon engagements. This placed her in the embarrassing position of being obliged to go alone and then apologize for him.
“Poor Don is in business now,” was her stock explanation.
She was irritated with Don for having placed her in this position. In return for having surrendered to him certain privileges, she had expected him to fulfill certain obligations. If she had promised to allow him to serve exclusively as her social partner, then he should 124 have been at all times available. He had no right to leave her a social widow––even when he could not help it. As far as the afternoons were concerned, the poor boy could not help it––she knew that; but, even so, why should her winter be broken up by what some one else could not help?
She had given her consent to Don, not to a business man. As Don he had been delightful. No girl could ask to have a more attentive and thoughtful fiancé than he had been. He allowed her to make all his engagements for him, and he never failed her. He was the only man she knew who could sit through a tea without appearing either silly or bored. And he was nice––but not too nice––to all her girl friends, so that most of them were jealous of her. Decidedly, she had had nothing to complain of.