“Please don’t force me into a hasty marriage! Here I am, a struggling young architect who will soon be not so young. Give me time to become self-supporting!”
“Of course Millie will marry you in the proper course of things,” said Freeman. “If that girl should throw herself away on Franklin Mills she wouldn’t be Millie. And she is very much Millie!”
“Heavens!” exclaimed his wife. “The bare thought of that girl, with her beauty, her spiritual insight, her sweetness, linking herself to that—that——”
“This talk is all bosh!” interrupted Freeman. “I doubt if Mills ever sees Millicent alone. These gossips ought to be sent to the penal farm.”
“Oh, I think they’ve seen each other in a neighborly sort of way,” said Mrs. Freeman. “Mills is a cultivated man and Millicent’s music and modeling no doubt really interest him. I ran in to see her the other morning and she’s been doing a bust of Mills—she laughed when I asked her about it and said she had hard work getting sitters and Mr. Mills is ever so patient.”
The intimacy implied in this kindled Bruce’s jealousy anew. Dale Freeman, whose prescience was keen, saw a look in his face that gave her instant pause.
“Mr. Mills and Leila are leaving in a few days,” she remarked quickly. “I don’t believe he’s much of a success as a matchmaker. It’s been in the air for several years that Leila must marry Arthur Carroll, but he doesn’t appear to be making any headway.”
“Leila will do as she pleases,” said Freeman, who was satisfied with a very little gossip. “Bruce, how do you feel about tackling that Laconia war memorial?”
Bruce’s native town was to build a museum as a memorial to the soldiers in all her wars, from the Revolutionary patriots who had settled the county to the veterans of the Great War. Freeman had encouraged Bruce to submit plans, which were to be passed on by a jury of the highest distinction. Freeman kept strictly to domestic architecture; but Bruce’s ideas about the memorial had impressed him by their novelty. His young associate had, he saw, a natural bent for monumental structures that had been increased by the contemplation of the famous memorials in Europe. They went into the Freemans’ study to talk over the specifications and terms of the competition, and by midnight Bruce was so reassured by his senior’s confidence that it was decided he should go to work immediately on his plans.
“It would be splendid, Bruce!” said Dale, who had sewed during the discussion, throwing in an occasional apt comment and suggestion. “The people of Laconia would have all the more pride in their heroes if one of them designed the memorial. It’s not big enough to tempt the top-notchers in the profession, but if you land it it will push you a long way up!”