She 's twenty-six now . Marian is a mighty nice girl , but she 's bound to be an old maid . She 's got notions -- ideals , she calls 'em . All the Croyden fellows have been in love with her at one time or another but they might as well have made up to a statue . Marian really has n't a spark of feeling or sentiment in her . Her looks are the best part of her , although she 's confoundedly clever . '' Peter spoke rather squiffily . I suspected that he had been one of the smitten swains himself . I looked at the photo for a few minutes longer , admiring it more every minute and , when I heard Peter coming out , I did an unjustifiable thing -- I took that photo and put it in my pocket . I expected Peter would make a fuss when he missed it , but that very night the house in which he lived was burned to the ground . Peter escaped with the most important of his goods and chattels , but all the counterfeit presentments of his dear divinities went up in smoke . If he ever thought particularly of Marian Lindsay 's photograph he must have supposed that it shared the fate of the others . As for me , I propped my ill-gotten treasure up on my mantel and worshipped it for a fortnight . At the end of that time I went boldly to Peter and told him I wanted him to introduce me by letter to his dear cousin and ask her to agree to a friendly correspondence with me . Oddly enough , I did not do this without some reluctance , in spite of the fact that I was as much in love with Marian Lindsay as it was possible to be through the medium of a picture . I thought of the girl I had seen in the pine wood and felt an inward shrinking from a step that might divide me from her forever . But I rated myself for this nonsense . It was in the highest degree unlikely that I should ever meet the girl of the pines again . If she were still living she was probably some other man 's wife . I would think no more about it .
Peter whistled when he heard what I had XXXXX say .
At If about although from in of that to with