it would be a painful half hour for him, and an embarrassing half hour for her, because it would be her
first proposal. She thrilled deliciously at the thought. She was really a woman, with a man ripe to ask
for her in marriage. It was a lure to all that was fundamental in her sex. The fabric of her life, of all that
constituted her, quivered and grew tremulous. The thought fluttered in her mind like a flame-attracted
moth. She went so far as to imagine Martin proposing, herself putting the words into his mouth; and
she rehearsed her refusal, tempering it with kindness and exhorting him to true and noble manhood.
And especially he must stop smoking cigarettes. She would make a point of that. But no, she must not
let him speak at all. She could stop him, and she had told her mother that she would. All flushed and
burning, she regretfully dismissed the conjured situation. Her first proposal would have to be deferred to
a more propitious time and a more eligible suitor.