Word Count: 12,086
Summary of Events:
Hazel returned to Joseph's office to inform him that she hadn't found her niece and nephew yet, so Joseph accompanied her to her sister's house to look through it again before they elected to canvass the neighbours to see what any of them knew. Partway through the canvassing Joseph's fiancée approached him and expressed worries about their wedding and the fact that another young woman in town was getting married before they were, which his fiancée suspected was a deliberate manoeuvre to show them up . . .
Excerpt of the Day:
Suddenly Mabel’s expression changed to be one more of consternation and she appeared to be looking around him at someone beyond him. Joseph slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder and see Mrs. Chalmers striding up to him and looking rather unimpressed.
“Mabel,” Joseph said before either woman could speak. “This is Mrs. Hazel Chalmers, aunt of the Dirk kids. Mrs. Chalmers, this is my fiancée Miss Mabel Waller.”
Both women sized each other up rather guardedly, and as they did he noted that Mabel — although looking younger than Mrs. Chalmers — was actually noticeably taller than Mrs. Chalmers.
Once they’d looked each other over several times Mrs. Chalmers turned to Joseph.
“I find it intriguing that you are so quick to supply me with the name of your fiancée but yet I’ve been of your acquaintance for several hours and still know not your own.”
Joseph startled. He hadn’t told her his name?
“Well,” Mabel said. “I’ll tell you what his name isn’t.”
“Oh?” Mrs. Chalmers inquired. “And what isn’t it?”
“Confederate,” Mabel replied. “He may’ve come from their lands, but that doesn’t make him one.”
“Nor was I accusing him of being one,” Mrs. Chalmers replied. “Although my birth predates the conflict I was too young to have any opinion on the matter. Furthermore, I did not reside on this continent at the time, and am still quite disinclined to embroil myself in matters of politics.”
“Ladies, please,” Joseph said. “I’m sorry for the oversight on my part Mrs. Chalmers, it was unintentional. And Mabel, Mrs. Chalmers doesn’t hold that against me, she is much more offended by the fact that I was given my entire education by my mother.”
“Oh,” Mabel said, looking sidewise at Mrs. Chalmers. “That seems an unfair prejudice. How do you know his mother’s intelligence wasn’t equivalent to your own?”
“I come from the country that invented English,” Mrs. Chalmers replied. “I know how it is to be spoken properly, and I am sorry to say that your fiancé doesn’t have a fingernail’s grasp on the concept of proper sentence structure, among other frightful grammatical errors in his speech.”
“Look, I speak like everyone I grew up around speaks,” Joseph interrupted. “But I would presume, Mrs. Chalmers, that you had some alternate reason for coming over here other than to degrade my use of your language to my fiancée.”
“I thought we were canvassing the neighbourhood looking for my niece and nephew,” Mrs. Chalmers replied. “Not speaking with the objects of our affections.”
“We are canvassing the neighbourhood,” Joseph replied. “Our fiancées merely approached us and were expressing worries to us we were doing our utmost to assuage in a timely fashion so that we could return to said task.”
“Good,” Mrs. Chalmers said.
“Now if you’d kindly leave me to assuage my fiancée’s worries I will get back to canvassing my half of the street as promptly as possible,” Joseph said.
Mrs. Chalmers nodded and strode away briskly.
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