"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.