“And we know, of course, that you didn’t expect to be called on at this meeting,” Charlie interrupted him.
“But the fact is,” Jack ignored him, “that I want to announce the engagement of my sister, Jane Pellew, to Allen Breckenridge,” and, quite overcome, Jack sat down.
Everybody was perfectly silent until Frances threw herself into the breach and saved the situation by saying, “Sloan’s liniment—‘Don’t rub, let it penetrate’—Jack, you did it so suddenly you simply took our breaths away. I bid to be first to congratulate both the contracting parties,” and she jumped up and ran around to Jane and hugged her and gave Breck’s hand a cordial squeeze.
Frances’ quickness galvanized the little party into life and all the girls kissed Jane repeatedly and the men wrung Breck’s hand again and again. Then the questions began, “When did it happen?” “Isn’t it awfully sudden?” “Wasn’t Jack funny?” “You didn’t know he was going to do it, did you, Jane dear?”
And Jane was infinitely grateful to Jack for the part he played because he couldn’t have acknowledged Breck in a more sincere and gracious manner.
“Why, Breck,” teased Mr. Wing, “I believe you are quite used to having announcements of this kind made about you. You are behaving like a professional fiancé.”
“I am scared to death, really,” Breck admitted with a grin, “but I have been under fire enough to have learned not to let my knees shake visibly.”
“And I want to tell you right now, that I think that plan of yours and Jane’s to run Hurricane Island as a summer colony is good and I hope and believe that you will make a good thing of it. You can count on me to talk it up because I want my stock in the company to bring in big returns,” Mr. Wing said, shaking Breck’s hand once more.
Afterwards, Breck told Jane that he felt like the President of the United States at his inauguration, his hand had been pumped up and down so much. Jane had laughed and said that she herself felt like Joffre must have after nearly all the school children in the country had proudly kissed him.