“Yes--you know don’t you, that she’s got to be married?”
“Ah--but in time. In my country--girls don’t--”
“This isn’t your country. Jinny is nineteen, she’s very conspicuous.
There are already several _prétendants_--”
“_Prétendants?_”
“Yes. Hasn’t Philibert consulted you?”
“No.”
“It is as I thought.”
“What do you mean, Aunt?”
She pounded on the floor with her cane. She was almost impotent now and
spent her days in an armchair, from which she had to be lifted to bed
by two servants. And her temper was short.
“Don’t be a fool! I am warning you. You’d better ask Philibert. Don’t
tell him I told you. Oh well--do if you like, what is it to me, to have
him angry?”
I was very much disturbed but didn’t go to Philibert and ask him what
he was up to, because I wanted to gain time, and it didn’t occur to me
as possible that he would really commit himself without consulting me.
I wanted to gain time for Jinny herself. I had hopes for her of what
seemed to me the happiest of all solutions.
Philibert thinks to this day that the poor little abortive romance of
Jinny and Sam Chilbrook was my doing. Poor sweet babies. I had had no
hand in their falling in love. It had seemed to me to be the work of
God and I had kept out of it.
Sam had come to Paris from the army for the peace conference. He
was attached to the President’s suite. I had known his father and
his mother and his grandfather and grandmother. Every one knew the
Chilbrooks. They lived in Washington and Philadelphia, and the men of
the family had a taste for the diplomatic service. The grandfather you
remember was the American Ambassador in London, years ago. They were
very well off.
Sam was a romantic, with a humorous grin and the nicest voice in the
world. He had nice young eyes, and freckles on his nose. He liked to do
things in a hurry. He met Jinny at luncheon at the American Embassy and
fell in love with her at first sight.
“Please ask me to tea alone,” he said to me after lunch. “I want to
talk to you. I want to marry your daughter”--and he cocked an eyebrow
like a puppy.