"I didn't say I cared for men with such unmitigated nerve as that. The idea!"
"You thought us well suited to each other."
"Certainly I did; that's an entirely different matter. You are just as mercenary as he, and I think you would make a perfect team,—but Merry! Ho, ho! The audacity of it!"
Sitting on the edge of her steamer chair Marian tapped the deck excitedly with her toe and carefully adjusted an imaginary crease in her skirt. Suddenly she turned again to her companion.
"So he came down to get Merry,—and proposed to you?"
"Yes; rather well manœuvered, wasn't it? You see, don't you, that my mercenary instincts saved you from an unpleasant maternal duty?"
"I bless you for it," Marian said heartily; "but you've refused him, so that leaves him loose to begin over again. He's not safe yet."
"I wouldn't worry about that just now," Edith reassured her. "Mr. Cosden has learned a few things since he has been under my instruction, and I think he will be less precipitate."
"Why don't you continue the good work and polish him up for yourself? You must have found some good points or you wouldn't have gone to all this trouble."
"No, Marian; it's too big a contract. I once had hopes but they are gone. The first thing I knew he'd have me packed up in spite of myself and shipped off somewhere. I'm very disappointed, but I dare not take the chance."