after I’m gone. I’m fair game, and Steve can set you going.?
With that, Mac departed as abruptly as he had come, feeling that
he had “made a mess” of it, but comforting himself with the
thought that perhaps he had secured help for Charlie at his own
expense and thinking with a droll smile as he went back to his
mother: “My romance begins by looking after other girls’ lovers
instead of finding a sweetheart for myself, but I can’t tell Rose, so
she won’t laugh at me.?
Chapter 13 BOTH SIDES
Steve’s engagement made a great stir in the family a pleasant one
this time, for nobody objected, everything seemed felicitous, and
the course of true love ran very smoothly for the young couple,
who promised to remove the only obstacle to their union by
growing old and wise as soon as possible. If he had not been so
genuinely happy, the little lover’s airs would have been unbearable,
for he patronized all mankind in general, his brother and elder
cousins in particular.
“Now, that is the way to manage matters,” he declared, standing
before the fire in Aunt Clara’s billiard room a day or two after the
ball, with his hands behind his back. “No nonsense, no delay, no
domestic rows or tragic separations. Just choose with taste and
judgment, make yourself agreeable through thick and thin, and
when it is perfectly evident that the dear creature adores the
ground you walk on, say the word like a man, and there you are.?
“All very easy to do that with a girl like Kitty, who has no
confounded notions to spoil her and trip you up every time you
don’t exactly toe the mark,” muttered Charlie, knocking the balls
about as if it were a relief to hit something, for he was in a
gloriously bad humor that evening, because time hung heavy on
his hands since he had forsworn the company he could not keep
without danger to himself.
“You should humor those little notions, for all women have them,
and it needs tact to steer clear of them. Kitty’s got dozens, but I
treat them with respect, have my own way when I can, give in
without growling when I can’t, and we get on like a couple of ?
“Spoons,” put in Charlie, who felt that he had not steered clear and
so suffered shipwreck in sight of land.
Steve meant to have said “doves,” but his cousin’s levity caused
him to add with calm dignity, “reasonable beings,” and then
revenged himself by making a good shot which won him the game.
“You always were a lucky little dog, Steve. I don’t begrudge you a
particle of your happiness, but it does seem as if things weren’t
quite fair sometimes,” said Archie, suppressing an envious sigh,
for, though he seldom complained, it was impossible to contrast
his own and his cousin’s prospects with perfect equanimity.
“His worth shines forth the brightest who in hope
Always confides: the Abject soul despairs,?
observed Mac, quoting Euripides in a conversational tone as he lay
upon a divan reposing after a hard day’s work.
“Thank you,” said Archie, brightening a little, for a hopeful word
from any source was very comfortable.
“That’s your favorite Rip, isn’t it? He was a wise old boy, but you
could find advice as good as that nearer home,” put in Steve, who
just then felt equal to slapping Plato on the shoulder, so elated was
he at being engaged “first of all the lot,” as he gracefully expressed
it.
“Don’t halloo till you are out of the wood, Dandy Mrs. Kit has
jilted two men, and may a third, so you’d better not brag of your
wisdom too soon, for she may make a fool of you yet,” said
Charlie, cynically, his views of life being very gloomy about this
time.
“No, she won’t, Steve, if you do your part honestly. There’s the
making of a good little woman in Kitty, and she has proved it by
taking you instead of those other fellows. You are not a Solomon,
but you’re not spoilt yet, and she had the sense to see it,” said Mac