But I prefer the
plain frank statement that it was the fourth day of the voyage. That is
my story and I mean to stick to it.
Samuel Marlowe, muffled in a bathrobe, came back to the stateroom from
his tub. His manner had the offensive jauntiness of the man who has had
a cold bath when he might just as easily have had a hot one. He looked
out of the porthole at the shimmering sea. He felt strong and happy and
exuberant.
It was not merely the spiritual pride induced by a cold bath that was
uplifting this young man. The fact was that, as he towelled his glowing
back, he had suddenly come to the decision that this very day he would
propose to Wilhelmina Bennett. Yes, he would put his fortune to the
test, to win or lose it all. True, he had only known her for four days,
but what of that?
Nothing in the way of modern progress is more remarkable than the
manner in which the attitude of your lover has changed concerning
proposals of marriage. When Samuel Marlowe's grandfather had convinced
himself, after about a year and a half of respectful aloofness, that the
emotion which he felt towards Samuel Marlowe's grandmother-to-be was
love, the fashion of the period compelled him to approach the matter in a
roundabout way.
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