Craig
rose, his face red. "Mrs. Severence isn't very well," said he
noisily to the servant, as if he were on terms of closest intimacy
with the family. "Tell Margaret I'll wait for her in the garden."
And he rushed out by the window that opened on the veranda,
leaving the amazed butler at the door, uncertain what to do.
Mrs. Severence, ascending the stairs in high good humor with
herself at having handled a sudden and difficult situation as well
as she had ever read of its being handled in a novel, met her
daughter descending.
"Sh-h!" said she in a whisper, for she had not heard the front
door close. "He may not be gone. Come with me."
Margaret followed her mother into the library at the head of the
stairs.
"It was that Craig man," explained Mrs. Severence, when she had
the door closed. "What DO you think he had the impudence to do?"
"I'm sure I can't imagine," said Margaret, impatient.
"He proposed for you!"
Margaret reflected a brief instant. "Nonsense!" she said
decisively. "He's not that kind. You misunderstood him."
"I tell you he did!" cried her mother. "And I ordered him out of
the house."
"What?" screamed Margaret, clutching her mother's arm.
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