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Mommy he loved her and how they had planned to be married and spend their life together. The little romantic touches were very tender and quite sacred in the memory of the young girl as she was growing up. A fitting pattern for the story of the lover who would perhaps come into her own life someday. But strange to say, she had never quite visualized Victor as that lover. Victor was a friend, yes, a good playmate, but the lover she had vaguely looked forward to would be very different from Victor. And so it had come to her as a sort of shock to find that Victor had been considering that she
belonged
to him. And she didn’t want to belong to Victor
always
. Oh
no
! Not in any way but as a friend. It had angered her, almost terrified her, to have Victor speak of marriage as a sort of business arrangement to be entered into, as if he were taking her over to support and mold, instead of the beautiful, sacred state of joy she had always felt it was. It wasn’t just for fun, like going to a football game or party together. Why didn’t Victor feel as she did? He had a good father and mother. He must have seen a few ideal marriages in his life. At least he knew
her
father and mother and their beautiful life. He had spent many hours in her home playing and had had ample opportunity to see how they cared for one another. Could it really be true that since he had been away to college he had accepted such different standards? She couldn’t believe it. He must just have been joking, surely, as her mother had suggested when she first told her of the change in Victor. Of course he could not have been really proposing marriage. He wouldn’t do it in that way. He was only trying to be exceedingly daring—probably rather enjoyed the idea of shocking her and her mother. Perhaps he felt that such an experience would make them understand what he had been trying to suggest, that she should go away to another college for her senior year.
    Well, if that was it, he would be disappointed, for she certainly did not wish to go away. She would not graduate from any other college than her own, where she had been working now for three happy years. She did not want new associates, new ways and standards. And perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing that they had been angry with him and she had left the restaurant. It might bring him to his senses and make him understand that he could not talk to them in this casual new way he had learned.
    But the uppermost feeling in her mind was one of shame for him. To think that he had so changed! She wasn’t in love with him. By no means. She hadn’t ever thought of love in connection with him. He had just been her nice boyfriend, and now he wasn’t even nice, not the way he acted today. But perhaps after he had thought it over, he would realize what he had done.
    Well, he ought to be ashamed. He ought to realize that everybody was not like his new-fashioned friends. And if he liked that sort of thing, she didn’t want anything more to do with him. But surely now, after this, she wouldn’t be expected to go to that party!
    Of course, there would be mortifying explanations if she didn’t. She would have to write a note to Mrs. Vandingham.
    Oh, she
couldn’t
! How could she explain without telling her what Victor had done? And that would result in a never-ending situation. Victor would be brought into it and be required to make an apology. She could see him now, in his new role, laughing it all off, calling it a joke. And
making his mother believe it
! That would be the worst.
    She
couldn’t
go to his party now. Even if he did apologize, he would somehow make it apparent to the assembled town that there was some special arrangement between them. He would claim they were going to get married or something, and do it so publicly that she couldn’t deny it without making a fool of herself.
    Tears stung her eyes as she walked along the street. Oh, she couldn’t go to the hairdresser’s now and sit through a long