Rex was not quite certain whether he wanted her or not, but Colin’s attitude helped to reassure him and he said again. “I’ll settle it to-morrow one way or the other.”
“There’s only one way to settle it. Ask her out and out and don’t hint that she’s too tall! My soul! As if there could be too much of a woman like that!” Colin rejoined, as he lighted his pipe and went out upon the piazza to smoke, leaving Rex alone.
The pain in his head which had left him for a time had come back again and he could not think of anything very clearly except that he must propose to Irene the next day. Even that did not seem to impress him very strongly. Nothing impressed him very much, and after he went to his room he sat a long time by his window, scarcely knowing of what he was thinking, except that he was hot and cold by turns, with a buzzing in his head, and he was going to propose to Irene on the morrow.
“Squeeze her hand and ask how her pulse was beating,” Colin had suggested. But Rex didn’t believe he should do that, and he didn’t believe he should do anything, if it were not for that face in the mirror, which kept haunting him with its one eye, which followed him persistently and made him so uncomfortable and nervous.
Even after he was in bed and the light out he saw it looking at him, and the last thing he remembered he was covering his face with the sheet to shut it from his sight.
CHAPTER XV
“MAN PROPOSES, BUT GOD DISPOSES”
“Claremont, August ——
“To Miss Irene Burdick, Oakfield, Mass.
“Johnnie is very low with malignant diphtheria. Come at once.
James Burdick.”