Amy's heart said, "It has come at last." Her brain said, "He has
discovered it because of Maxwell Sears." Her lips said, "I don't wonder.
She's a dear child, Murray."
"She's beautiful."
Murray swayed up a little on his toes. It made him seem thinner and
taller. He could see himself reflected in the long mirror on the
opposite wall. He liked the reflection of the thin tall man.
"She's beautiful, Amy. I am going to ask her to marry me. I can't have
some other fellow running off with her. She belongs to Georgetown."
He seemed to think that settled it. The pain in Amy's side was sharper.
She felt that she couldn't quite stand seeing Murray happy with Anne.
"She's--she's such a child." Her voice shook.
"Well," said Murray, glancing at the tall thin man in the mirror, "of
course she is young. But Maxwell Sears is coming here a lot. Is he in
love with her?"
"I'm not sure. She amuses him. She isn't in love with him or with
anybody."
"Not even with me?" Murray laughed a little. "But we can remedy that,
can't we, Amy? But you might hint at what I'm expecting of her. I don't
want to startle her." He came and sat down beside her. "You are always a
great dear about doing things for me."
The pain stabbed her like a knife. "I'll do my best."
She had a nervous feeling that she must keep Murray from talking to her
like that. She rang for hot water, and their one maid, Charlotte,
brought it in a Sheffield jug. Then Ethel and Anne and Molly Winchell
arrived, and once more Murray stood up, tall and self-conscious as he
stole side glances at himself in the mirror.
Maxwell Sears had brought the three women home. He had a fashion of
following up Anne's engagements and putting his car at her disposal.
When Amy had vetoed any more adventures at the Capitol he had conceded
good-naturedly that she was right. After that he had always included Amy
or Ethel in his invitations.
"They are very pretty dragons," he had written to Winifred, "and little
Anne is like a princess shut in a tower."
Winifred, reading the letter, had brooded upon it. "He's falling in
love. A child like that--she'll spoil his future."
Congress was having night sessions. "If I could only have you up there,"
Maxwell had said to Anne as he had driven her home from the matinee,
with old Molly and Ethel on the back seat. "I should steal you if I
dared."
"Please dare."
"Do you mean it?"
"Yes. To-night. Ethel and Amy are going to a Colonial Dames meeting with
Molly Winchell. I never go. I hate ancestors."
"I shouldn't let you do it," he hesitated, "but ghosts walk after dark
in the Capitol corridors."
"I know," she nodded. "Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln."
"Yes. Then you'll come?"
"Of course."
It was the thought of her rendezvous with him that lighted her eyes when
she talked to Murray. But Murray did not know. So he swayed up on his
toes and glanced in the glass and was glad of his thinness and
tallness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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