Gail leaned forward towards her aunt, and tilted her chin.
“Houston wants to propose, and he’s sent his father and sister to find out if he may!” she charged.
“Yes,” acknowledged Mrs. Davies, driven past the possibility of delay or preparation, and feeling herself unjustly on the defensive.
“I shall not be at home this evening,” announced Gail decisively, and stretched out her feet again, and crossed her little grey slippers, and took a chocolate. “Or any other evening,” she added.
Mrs. Davies lost her flutter immediately. This was too stupendously serious a matter to be weakly treated.
“My dear, you don’t understand!” she protested, not in anger, but in patient reason. “Houston Van Ploon has been the unattainable match of New York. He is a gentleman in every particular, a desirable young man in every respect, and gifted with everything a young girl would want. He has so much money that you could buy a kingdom and be a queen, if you chose to amuse yourself that way. He has a dignified old family, which makes mere social position seem like an ignominious scramble for cotillion favours; and it is universally admitted that he is the most perfect of all the Van Ploons for many generations. Not exceptionally clever; but that is one of the reasons the Van Ploons are so particular to find a suitable matrimonial alliance for him.”
Gail, nibbling daintily at her chocolate, closed her eyelids for a second, the long, brown lashes curved down on her cheeks, and from beneath them there escaped a sparkle like the snap of live coals, while the corners of her lips twitched in that little smile which she kept for her own enjoyment.
“You can not appreciate the compliment which has been paid you, Gail. Every débutante for the past five years has been most carefully considered by the Van Ploons, and I sincerely believe this to be the first time they have unanimously agreed on a choice. It is a matter of eugenics, Gail, but in addition to that, Mr. Van Ploon assures me that Houston is most fervently interested.”
“How careless of them,” criticised Gail. “They have neither asked for my measurements nor examined my teeth.”
“Gail!” Her chaperon and sponsor was both shocked and stern.