“Miss Clergy heard you sing. Her carriage just went on. She had Ali Baba stop so’s she could hear. She stuck her head out the window and asked him your name and Dan’s name and he told her, and then she stuck her head in and he drove on.”
“There’s an old woman who ought to be ashamed to act like she has for years and years,” Dan began.
But Thurley did not answer. Presently she said, “So—I had an audience even in a graveyard. Dan, do you know Miss Clergy never asks questions about any one? She must have liked my voice!”
“She’ll never get the chance to hear it again! I’ll race you to that first oak—”
Thurley shook her head. “Wait, Dan, I feel queer inside ... as if something might come of it, I don’t know just what.”
“Are you going to let a crazy old woman’s listening to you sing stop our getting to the newspaper office in time to announce our engagement?”
“Dan, do you realize that we are both ‘Corners’ people and they never do get along? A house or a store on the corner always attracts the most attention and gets the most notice paid to it and that is why your father’s people founded these Corners and you have to be a Corners person—people just naturally pay you attention or you know why ... and I’m a Corners person, too.”
“I said I was not going to listen to your nonsense. I’ll kiss you right in sight of this farmer’s team,” he warned. “You’re going to belong to me and that is all that matters.”
“Gosh, you should see the tilt of his gold-banded cigar,” was Ali Baba’s comment to Hopeful the day the engagement was announced with a special heading, and also the fact that “Mr. Birge has begun plans for building his permanent residence on the beautiful site overlooking the lake. It is understood it will be named Fairview in accordance with Miss Precore’s wishes and elaborate furnishings have been ordered from New York.”
“I’m sorry for Lorraine,” Hopeful answered, “but I bet a cookie ’Raine goes to see Thurley and takes her an embroidered set for a present. She’s as brave as a lion and sweet as an angel! And I bet you a mince pie Thurley Precore isn’t going to be happy.”
“You ain’t sayin’ anything against Thurley?” demanded Ali Baba.
“Land, no, I set a sight by Thurley the same as by Lorraine, and I like Dan as well as either of ’em. It’s just a mistake, Ali Baba, and you know what mistakes in love do.” Her hand pointed in the direction of the upper front rooms. “Well, wait and see. Thurley was meant always to sing for her supper, the same as Lorraine was made to cook supper for a good man.”