If I had it, I'd give another hundred thousand dollars to the cause, to
hear that interview between Sallie and the Dominie. I wager he'll never
know what happened and would swear it didn't, if confronted with a
witness.
And also I felt so nervous with all this asking-in-marriage surging in
the atmosphere that it was with difficulty that I sat through supper
and listened to Jane and Polk, who had come in with her, plan town
sewerage. To-morrow night I knew the moon wouldn't rise until eleven
o'clock, and how did I know anyway that Sallie's emancipation might not
get started on the wrong track and run into my Crag? His chivalry would
never let him refuse a woman who proposed to him and he'll be in danger
until I can do it and tell the town about it.
Jane and Polk had promised Dickie and Nell to motor down Providence Road
as far as Cloverbend in the moonlight, and I think Caroline and Lee were
going too. Polk looked positively agonized with embarrassed sorrow at
leaving me all alone, and it was with difficulty that I got them off. I
pleaded the greatest fatigue and my impatience amounted to crossness.
After they had gone I dismissed Jasper and Petunia and locked the back
doors, put out all the lights in the house and retired to the side
steps, determined to be invisible no matter who called--and wait!
And for one mortal hour there I sat alone in that waning old moonlight,
that grew colder and paler by the minute, while the stiff breeze that
poured down from Old Harpeth began to be vicious and icy as it nipped my
ears and hands and nose and sent a chill down to my very toes.
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