Miss Cronin failed once
or twice to grasp my full meaning when I was talking with her."

"Oh, Fanny! But she's an old fool! Of course she's a dear, and I'm very
fond of her, but she is essentially nebulous. And what was it that you
think she misunderstood?"

Braybrooke hesitated. It really was very difficult to put what he wanted
to say into words. Scarcely ever before had he felt himself so incapable
of dealing adequately with a socially awkward situation. If only he knew
what Miss Cronin had said to Miss Van Tuyn while he was ordering tea!

"I could scarcely say I know. I really could not put my finger upon it,"
he said at last. "There was a general atmosphere of confusion, or so it
seemed to me. We--we discussed marriage."

"I hope the old dear didn't think you were proposing to her?"

"Good heavens--oh, no! no! I don't quite know what she thought." (He
lowered his eyes.) "But it wasn't that."

"That's a mercy at any rate!"

Braybrooke still kept his eyes on the ground, but a dogged look came
into his face, and he said, speaking more resolutely:

"I'm afraid I alarmed dear Miss Cronin."

"How perfectly splendid!" said Miss Van Tuyn.

"She is very fond of you."

"Much fonder of Bourget!"

"I don't think so," he said, with emphasis. "She is so devoted to
you that quite inadvertently I alarmed her. After all, we were--we
were"--nobly he decided to take the dreadful plunge--"we were two
elderly people talking together as elderly people will, I thought quite
freely and frankly, and I ventured--do forgive me--to hint that a great
many men must wish to marry you; young men suited to you, promising men,
men with big futures before them, anxious for a brilliant and beautiful
wife."

"That was very charming and solicitous of you," said Miss Van Tuyn with
a smile. "But I don't know that they do!"

"Do what?" said Braybrooke, almost losing his head, as he saw the
vision in the distance, now cloaked and gloved, rustling in an evident
preparation for something, which might be departure or might on the
other hand be approach.

She observed him with a definite surprise, which she seemed desirous of
showing.

"I was alluding to the promising men," she said.

"Which men?" asked Braybrooke, still hypnotized by the vision.

"The men with big futures before them who you were kind enough to tell
Fanny were longing to marry me."

"Oh, yes!" (With a great effort he pulled himself together.) "Those men
to be sure!"