"It's all right," answered Madge. "She doesn't really want our opinion
of him--or rather she doesn't want our real opinion of him. She only
wants us to confirm hers. She's engaged to him."

"Flossie engaged!" Joan seemed surprised.

"Yes," answered Madge. "It used to be a custom. Young men used to ask
young women to marry them. And if they consented it was called 'being
engaged.' Still prevails, so I am told, in certain classes."

"Thanks," said Joan. "I have heard of it."

"I thought perhaps you hadn't from your tone," explained Madge.

"But if she's already engaged to him, why risk criticism of him," argued
Joan, ignoring Madge's flippancy. "It's too late."

"Oh, she's going to break it off unless we all assure her that we find
him brainy," Madge explained with a laugh. "It seems her father wasn't
brainy and her mother was. Or else it was the other way about: I'm not
quite sure. But whichever it was, it led to ructions. Myself, if he's
at all possible and seems to care for her, I intend to find him
brilliant."

"And suppose she repeats her mother's experience," suggested Joan.

"There were the Norton-Browns," answered Madge. "Impossible to have
found a more evenly matched pair. They both write novels--very good
novels, too; and got jealous of one another; and threw press-notices at
one another's head all breakfast-time; until they separated. Don't know