“It evoked nostalgia for my homeland in me, who had been deeply immersed in New York’s social circles for decades. Nostalgia for the ladies of England, English gentlewomen, more dignified, beautiful, and virtuous than ladies of any other country. So I rushed here at once under the pretext of my younger sibling’s silver wedding anniversary.”

“How was it, Mr. Price? Did the real English ladies meet your expectations?”

“No. I am truly sorry to say this, but the difference between American ladies and English ladies was merely in dress fashion or opera preferences.”

“Oh my. That’s unfortunate, Mr. Price.”

Miss Pendleton responded kindly as she tried to remove her hands from the piano keys to turn the sheet music. However, Mr. Price, who had been sitting on the sofa, suddenly stood up and strode over to the piano. He then turned the page for her.

Miss Pendleton lightly expressed her gratitude and continued to tap the keys following the notes. But Mr. Price, instead of returning to the sofa after turning the page, leaned against the piano lid, tilting his body.

Although it was a reception room for entertaining guests, and a public space where servants could come and go at any time, it was still clearly a space where only the two of them were present. Miss Pendleton felt extremely uncomfortable with this gentleman, who was still an awkward guest, standing so close.

When Miss Pendleton finished the piece, he clapped his hands softly and murmured words of praise.

If he had been an ordinary gentleman, she would have never invited him to dinner again after that incident.

But he was her uncle’s close friend, her cousin’s matchmaker, and the godfather of the bride. There was no justification to discontinue their association.

So on evenings when there was a formal dinner, he would hover around Miss Pendleton.

And one evening, Mr. Price was, as usual, standing next to Miss Pendleton, listening to the piano. Unfortunately, the guests who had been spending time in the reception room had left early, leaving her to deal with Mr. Price alone.

Miss Pendleton tapped the keys while reciting the Lord’s Prayer a thousand times in her mind. Suddenly, Mr. Price grabbed Miss Pendleton’s hand as she played the keys.

Miss Pendleton, startled for a moment, let out a “Gasp!” and stood up from her seat. Had the inevitable finally come to pass?

But surprisingly, Mr. Price, while grabbing her hand, knelt beside the piano stool where Miss Pendleton sat. And looking up at the startled Miss Pendleton with a passionate gaze, he exclaimed:

“Miss Pendleton! Please do not be alarmed. I beg you, please wipe that shocked expression from your face and listen to me for a moment!”

Miss Pendleton looked down at Mr. Price with her hand covering her gaping mouth. She couldn’t understand why Mr. Price was suddenly acting this way, but it was clear that he had no intention of disgracing her.

At that moment, the voice of the maid Anne was heard from the entrance of the reception room.

“Miss, what on earth…!”

Anne, who had rushed in upon hearing the miss’s scream, wore an expression of shock at the scene unfolding in front of the piano. An elderly gentleman with graying hair kneeling before a lady more than twenty years his junior, making a proposal. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it unseemly.

Miss Pendleton hurriedly said to Anne:

“It’s nothing. Go away.”

Anne covered her mouth and quietly retreated.

With the intruder gone, Mr. Price looked up at Miss Pendleton and poured out the words he had been holding back.

“I told you before. That there was no difference between American ladies and English ladies except for opera tastes and dress fashions. That’s exactly what I thought. No matter which ball in London I attended, which tea party, which formal dinner, all I saw were women just like the dull ladies I had seen in America. I was greatly disappointed. In my heart, I thought I might find here a woman like my wife, Eleanor Price, a Southern belle, who left me and our children to go to God. But my disappointment was premature. Here, at the Pendleton house’s formal dinner, I discovered a woman who is like my wife’s shadow, no, her very incarnation. Miss Laura Pendleton, a genteel lady lacking in nothing – beauty, dignity, talent, and character!”

As his words poured out, Miss Pendleton’s face grew paler. In contrast to Mr. Price’s face, which was turning red with excitement the more he spoke.

“Miss Pendleton, please become my wife! Let’s go to America and start a new life together. The fact that you are past your prime is no flaw to me. I’ve had my fill too, and I’m not so presumptuous as to covet a 22-year-old miss. I simply want a virtuous woman to warm my bed. Miss Pendleton, please accept my proposal!”

He finished speaking and exhaled heavily. His passion might have been that of youth, but his lungs seemed unable to keep up with that passion.

Miss Pendleton looked down at him with a troubled expression. While it was true that he was an esteemed guest of the Pendleton family and she was worried about the various conflicts that might arise if she rejected him, what made her heart uncomfortable was something else.

She had become sympathetic to his graying eyebrows, his salt-and-pepper hair, and his bloodshot eyes that seemed to be welling up.

He was not doing this to trifle with her. He sincerely wanted her as his wife.

But if Miss Pendleton were the kind of person who could accept his proposal out of sympathy alone, she would have already become someone’s wife. She painfully extracted her hand from Mr. Price’s grasp.

“Mr. Price, I appreciate your proposal. But I cannot accept it. My heart does not harbor even a shadow of love for you, Mr. Price. And it never will. Please, forgive my refusal.”

She curtsied politely and quickly went upstairs.

Given this turn of events, it no longer made sense to invite Mr. Price to dinner. No matter that he was a friend of the head of the household, society respected a lady’s right to refuse a proposal, and guaranteed her the right to be spared from being in the same space as a gentleman she had rejected. She immediately discontinued the invitations.

But Mr. Price was a man of persistence. The day after his proposal was rejected, he began sending bouquets to Miss Pendleton. Miss Pendleton was aghast when she saw the enormous bouquet of roses addressed to her. The thought of Mr. Price choosing this while thinking of her made her head spin.

She wrote a letter, taking care not to hurt his pride, and sent it back along with the bouquet. And for several days, returning rejection letters along with the flowers became part of Miss Pendleton’s daily routine.

Nevertheless, Mr. Price was a cunning and tenacious man. Although he was not invited to dinner, he managed to create situations where he could see Miss Pendleton’s face one way or another.

Thanks to his extensive connections in society, he could freely enter and exit all balls, and by piecing together various rumors, he would appear like a ghost at whichever ball or concert Miss Pendleton was expected to attend that evening.

Miss Pendleton ended up ceasing all social activities except for ladies-only tea parties.

Rumors of Mr. Price courting Miss Pendleton spread quickly through society.

His daily visits to the florist to send roses to the Pendleton house, his actions of ferreting out Miss Pendleton’s schedule and following her around. Mr. Price was carrying out his courtship without a shred of embarrassment, almost to the point of being public about it.

And surprisingly, no one in society seemed perturbed by this blatant courtship. Although there was an age difference of twenty-four years between Miss Pendleton and Mr. Price, it wasn’t an uncommon marriage in society.

It was a common path for spinsters from humble families to become the second wife of elderly gentlemen like Mr. Price. Some even viewed Mr. Price’s interest as a very fortunate thing for Miss Pendleton.

“This might be Miss Pendleton’s last chance.”

Mrs. Lance spoke in a definitive tone at the ladies’ tea party she was hosting.

“Miss Pendleton will be thirty next year, and her chances of marriage should be considered gone forever. In this situation, Mr. Price’s interest is a stroke of luck.”

Another lady chimed in to agree with her words.

“Yes, Mrs. Abigail Pendleton is keeping her close, but how long will that lady live? I heard that when the madam passes away, all the property is set to be inherited by Mr. Pendleton’s second son, with a will already made. I wonder if Miss Pendleton’s share in that will amounts to a few pieces of jewelry and a used knife set. When Mrs. Pendleton passes away, Miss Pendleton will be completely penniless. If Miss Pendleton knew this, she shouldn’t show such dislike towards Mr. Price’s attention.”

“But if Miss Pendleton dislikes it, what can be done? Mr. Price’s appearance is a bit, you know. Besides, his courtship of Miss Pendleton is too transparent. Don’t you think he wants to take her to America to be a mother to his young children?”

Mrs. Lance was quick to rebut.

“Oh my, is she in a position to be picky? In fact, if Miss Pendleton had any sense of reality, she should have sought this path earlier. Instead of matchmaking for others, she should have found herself a gentleman like Mr. Price who could save her and settled down with him.”

The ladies, while gossiping like this, agreed that Miss Pendleton should quickly accept Mr. Price. Meanwhile, in their hearts, a determination arose to ensure their own daughters would avoid such a fate.

After the tea party ended, they returned to their respective homes and gave their daughters a lecture about Miss Pendleton’s situation, urging them to find husbands quickly, thus quelling their own anxieties.

And most young ladies tended to inherit their mother’s views on marriage. In the hearts of young maidens, becoming a spinster like Miss Pendleton was clearly imprinted as a situation to be absolutely avoided. Without her knowledge, Miss Pendleton had become a concrete fear etched in the hearts of young women as something to be avoided at all costs.

However, Mrs. Lance, who hosted the tea party, failed to instill this fear in her own daughter’s heart. Miss Lance felt more sympathy than fear when she saw Miss Pendleton’s situation.

“It’s impossible for Miss Pendleton to be with Mr. Price. There’s a twenty-four year age gap between them. How can she marry a man old enough to be her father?”