“Thank you, Maury. I never will.”
“You might think that because we are her children we will try the same sort of thing. But some times it works the other way. Our Dad isn’t happy,—you can tell that. He has talked to me, Ann. I’m not much for him to be proud of, but I’m square, Ann; and since I smashed that car I have tried to be easier on Dad.”
Ann’s brows were knit as she listened. It was one thing to think what she thought of Aunt Sue and matters among the Tysons, and another thing to listen to Maurice tell about it. It jarred Ann’s feeling of fitness, if nothing else. Maurice went on.
“Not that I’m trying to make myself out anything but an extravagant fellow. I like to have a good time all right. But I started to tell you where you came into the conversation with Mother. When she started talking about Grandmother, I let her ‘rave on,’ and then I declared what I thought where you were concerned, that you had just as much right as the rest of us to have a share in Grandmother’s affections and money. It isn’t only the money, Ann, with Mother. She’s jealous. I don’t know what started it (Ann could have told him) but that is a fact. Then I said a few things about you and added that if you were not my cousin I’d like to marry you some day. Mother took it up too quickly! She said that the relationship between us need make no difference, and that she thought it an excellent idea. I wanted to clear up your notion that it was Mother’s first thought. Nobody can help loving you, Ann. Look at Clifford Hart and that Gordon man, and you should have heard Jack go on about you. That is why I wanted to get a word in.”
“Well, Maurice, if it is of any satisfaction to you to know it, I will say,” laughed Ann, “that your amazing suggestion at the lodge was my first proposal!”
“It will not be the last, and that is why I wanted your promise.”
“So you said. But Maury, look here. It is going to be ages before I get out of school and finish what I am going to do. Why, Daddy and Mother think that I am not anywhere near grown up yet. And I am going to be one of the world’s greatest pianists and have to study and play six hours a day, after a while, and go abroad and everything!”
“Go abroad with me after we are married. You can do the whole thing just as well then. Let’s see. I finish this year. Then I’ll get my father to give me some sort of an easy job. I’ll tell you; I’ll handle the foreign end of it. That is the very thing!” Maurice slapped his hand upon his right knee with emphasis. “You will be through school, if you must finish it, in two years, though that is too long,—I mean in two years after I am out of school. By that time, with a fat check from Grandmother, we ought to get along.” Maurice looked at Ann with what Madeline would have found an irresistible smile, as he leaned forward, in his earnestness, to take Ann’s hand.
Ann patted her cousin’s hand with her free one, then withdrew both. “You are looking too far ahead, Maurice. Neither of us knows a thing about real love. It is going to worry me too much to think about this. Please, Maury, don’t!”
Maurice straightened up and leaned back against the lattice again. “Now isn’t she flattering? The prospect is so terrible that she begins to beg for mercy!”