“You’ll have to propose to him yourself, then, Millie,” said Mrs. Loring, with a worldly shrug.
“I should not be afraid to do that,” Millicent retorted defiantly.
“I should like to be there when it happened.” Mrs. Loring’s tone expressed the most offhand incredulity in the affair being ever definitely settled. There was a silence as they approached and discovered my presence.
Now, I had never been in the least resentful of Mrs. Loring Chatterton’s self-arrogated responsibility for my welfare and Millicent’s--it had always been too open and frank to be regarded as interference. But in that moment she had given me a hint that I felt half inclined to act upon. Suppose she really were there when it happened?
“Welcome, dear ladies,” I said. “You almost caught me napping. I believe I have been dreaming, and seemed to hear voices.”
I looked at Millicent, and thought she understood; but it did not occur to Mrs. Loring that I might have overheard.
“You dream a good deal nowadays, Mr. Butterfield, don’t you?” she said, somewhat acidulously.
“I fear, Mrs. Loring,” I replied, “that I have lately done it to an extent that is almost criminal.”
She was still unenlightened, but I saw that Millicent guessed. I made places for them on either side of me, but Mrs. Loring hesitated, standing. No chance is too trivial for a matchmaker.
“Sit down, Mrs. Loring,” I said, making myself comfortable just out of the sun.
“I have been watching the sunset here all alone. It is a lovely evening. You and Loring have doubtless been sitting hand in hand, waiting for the twilight? No? The surroundings seem to call for that kind of thing somehow, don’t you think?”
“I’m glad to hear you say so, Mr. Butterfield. I have hopes of you even yet. The evening certainly inspires such--such things--providing they are strictly _en règle_.”
“Most decidedly,” I assented; “that must always be understood. I admit that it is a delicate matter--that there are times when even the most permissible caress becomes unseasonable, just as at others an unseasonable one is almost permissible. But as a general rule such proceedings must be, as you say, strictly _en règle_.”
“I find you in a most reasonable mood this evening, Mr. Butterfield,” she approved, with a glance at Millicent. “Dreaming evidently does you good. Pray continue.”