Edna laughed . `` So you have succumbed at first sight to our Croyden beauty ? Of course I 'll introduce you , but I warn you beforehand that she is the most incorrigible flirt in Croyden or out of it . So take care . '' It jarred on me to hear Marian called a flirt . It seemed so out of keeping with her letters and the womanly delicacy and fineness revealed in them . But I reflected that women sometimes find it hard to forgive another woman who absorbs more than her share of lovers , and generally take their revenge by dubbing her a flirt , whether she deserves the name or not . We had crossed the room during this reflection . Marian turned and stood before us , smiling at Edna , but evincing no recognition whatever of myself . It is a piquant experience to find yourself awaiting an introduction to a girl to whom you are virtually engaged . `` Dorothy dear , '' said Edna , `` this is my cousin , Mr. Curtis , from Vancouver . Eric , this is Miss Armstrong . '' I suppose I bowed . Habit carries us mechanically through many impossible situations . I do n't know what I looked like or what I said , if I said anything . I do n't suppose I betrayed my dire confusion , for Edna went off unconcernedly without another glance at me . Dorothy Armstrong ! Gracious powers -- who -- where -- why ? If this girl was Dorothy Armstrong who was Marian Lindsay ? To whom was I engaged ?
There was some awful mistake somewhere , for it could not be possible that there were two girls in Croyden who looked exactly like the photograph reposing XXXXX my valise at that very moment .
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