Clara had driven into town alone on the day when she received it and later
got into her buggy and drove south past the Butterworth farm into the
hills. She forgot to go home to lunch or to the evening meal. The horse
jogged slowly along, protesting and trying to turn back at every cross
road, but she kept on and did not get home until midnight. When she reached
the farmhouse her father was waiting. He went with her into the barnyard
and helped unhitch the horse. Nothing was said, and after a moment's
conversation having nothing to do with the subject that occupied both their
minds, she went upstairs and tried to think the matter out. She became
convinced that her father had something to do with the proposal of marriage
that he knew about it and had waited for her to come home in order to see
how it had affected her.
Clara wrote a reply that was as non-committal as the proposal itself. "I
do not know whether I want to marry you or not. I will have to become
acquainted with you. I however thank you for the offer of marriage and when
you feel that the right time has come, we will talk about it," she wrote.
After the exchange of letters, Alfred Buckley came to her father's house
more often than before, but he and Clara did not become better acquainted.
He did not talk to her, but to her father. Although she did not know it,
the rumor that she was to marry the New York man had already run about
town.
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