People were having tea, and the band was playing.

There was a jangle of voices, the jingle of a musical comedy, the movement of waiters.

Under the leaves of a tame palm which once had known the gorgeous freedom of a semi-tropical forest he stumbled over a proposal, the honest, fearful, pulsating proposal of a man who conceived that he was trying hopelessly to hitch his wagon to a star, and she, tremulous, amazed, and on the verge of tears, accepted him.

Hers presumably the dreadful ordeal of facing an incredulous daughter and two sarcastic parents-in-law and his of standing for judgment before them,--argument, discussion, satire, irony, abuse even,--a quiet and determined marriage and a new and beautiful life.
"What a delightful room," said Mrs.Harley.

"It looks so comfortable for a drawing-room that it must have been furnished by a man." "We'll have a house in town by October, around here, and I'll bet it won't be uncomfortable when you've finished with it." The raucous shouts of men crying an "extra" took Harley quickly to the open window.