“I wanted to be strong. I said: ‘Never in the world! I am not going to have you criticized and nagged and made unhappy, as if your name were a crime!’ Then he wired: ‘But it would remove objections, and cost only six thousand a year.’ I had to wait two whole days and nights before I could cable: ‘Objector will surely meet me in New York. She will probably forgive if we are both firm. My mind is made up. I would rather be a you-know-what than remain a Valentine.’”
“That was strong enough.”
“I meant it to be. He has been scurrilously treated, and somebody must stand by him. Now, to-morrow, February 14th, is his birthday. I remember it because we met on St. Valentine’s day, and it wasn’t many hours afterward that I guessed how he felt about me.”
“Dorothea! Do you mean to tell me that a man spoke to you of his feelings within twenty-four hours of the time you met?”
“No, I do not.”
“You certainly intimated as much. If it wasn’t many hours after you met on the 14th it must have been on the 15th.”
“No, you are wrong, Charlotte. It was the evening of the same day. We met in the early morning.”
“It sounds like a children’s party with an exchange of those snapping-mottoes.”
“Duke is nearly twenty-eight, you know, Charlotte; so it is simply nonsense to jeer at him. You ought to be able to imagine what sort of things would be said between two persons mutually attracted to each other—when you remember that he was born on February 14th and my name is Valentine. The coincidence simply put ideas into our heads; but I won’t go on if you don’t sympathize.”
“I don’t actually disapprove, not at heart. Now, what has his birthday got to do with to-morrow and St. Thomas?”