She consulted us in regard to everything , and we almost lived at her place in those days preceding the arrival of Mr. Malcolm MacPherson . Aunt Olivia plainly felt very happy and important . She had always wished to be married ; she was not in the least strong-minded and her old-maidenhood had always been a sore point with her . I think she looked upon it as somewhat of a disgrace . And yet she was a born old maid ; looking at her , and taking all her primness and little set ways into consideration , it was quite impossible to picture her as the wife of Mr. Malcolm MacPherson , or anybody else . We soon discovered that , to Aunt Olivia , Mr. Malcolm MacPherson represented a merely abstract proposition -- the man who was to confer on her the long-withheld dignity of matronhood . Her romance began and ended there , although she was quite unconscious of this herself , and believed that she was deeply in love with him . `` What will be the result , Mary , when he arrives in the flesh and she is compelled to deal with ` Mr. Malcolm MacPherson ' as a real , live man , instead of a nebulous ` party of the second part ' in the marriage ceremony ? '' queried Peggy , as she hemmed table-napkins for Aunt Olivia , sitting on her well-scoured sandstone steps , and carefully putting all thread-clippings and ravellings into the little basket which Aunt Olivia had placed there for that purpose . `` It may transform her from a self-centered old maid into a woman for whom marriage does not seem such an incongruous thing , '' I said . The day on which Mr. Malcolm MacPherson was expected Peggy and I went over . We had planned to remain away , thinking that the lovers would prefer their first meeting to be unwitnessed , but Aunt Olivia insisted on our being present . She was plainly nervous ; the abstract was becoming concrete . Her little house was in spotless , speckless order from top to bottom . Aunt Olivia had herself scrubbed the garret floor and swept the cellar steps that very morning with as much painstaking care as if she expected that Mr. Malcolm MacPherson would hasten to inspect each at once and she must stand or fall by his opinion of them . Peggy and I helped her to dress . She insisted on wearing her best black silk , in which she looked unnaturally fine . Her soft muslin became her much better , but we could not induce her to wear it . Anything more prim and bandboxy than Aunt Olivia when her toilet was finished it has never been my lot to see . Peggy and I watched her as she went downstairs , her skirt held stiffly up all around her that it might not brush the floor . ''
` Mr. Malcolm MacPherson ' will be inspired with such awe that he will only be able XXXXX sit back and gaze at her , '' whispered Peggy .
around from in into on than that to up upon