Could n't you have found a -- well , a less spectacular method of refusing him ? Think what a gossip this would have made if anyone had been going past and had seen such a performance . '' `` Indeed , Mrs. Dr. dear , you are quite right . I did not think of it because I was quite past thinking rationally . I was just clean mad . Come in the house and I will tell you all about it . '' Susan picked up her pot and marched into the kitchen , still trembling with wrathful excitement . She set her pot on the stove with a vicious thud . `` Wait a moment until I open all the windows to air this kitchen well , Mrs. Dr. dear . There , that is better . And I must wash my hands , too , because I shook hands with Whiskers-on-the-moon when he came in -- not that I wanted to , but when he stuck out his fat , oily hand I did not know just what else to do at the moment . I had just finished my afternoon cleaning and thanks be , everything was shining and spotless ; and thought I ` now that dye is boiling and I will get my rug rags and have them nicely out of the way before supper . ' `` Just then a shadow fell over the floor and looking up I saw Whiskers-on-the-moon , standing in the doorway , dressed up and looking as if he had just been starched and ironed . I shook hands with him , as aforesaid , Mrs. Dr. dear , and told him you and the doctor were both away . But he said , `` I have come to see you , Miss Baker . ' `` I asked him to sit down , for the sake of my own manners , and then I stood there right in the middle of the floor and gazed at him as contemptuously as I could . In spite of his brazen assurance this seemed to rattle him a little ; but he began trying to look sentimental at me out of his little piggy eyes , and all at once an awful suspicion flashed into my mind . Something told me , Mrs. Dr. dear , that I was about to receive my first proposal . I have always thought that I would like to have just one offer of marriage to reject , so that I might be able to look other women in the face , but you will not hear me bragging of this . I consider it an insult and if I could have thought of any way of preventing it I would .
But just then , Mrs. Dr. dear , you will see I was XXXXX a disadvantage , being taken so completely by surprise .
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