Marian and Harold broke apart to see Mrs. Paroo standing a few feet away, surveying them with an inscrutable expression.

"Mama!" Marian gasped, trying to smooth a few strands of wayward hair back into her bun. "Harold and I were just discussing our costumes for the Halloween masque."

"Oh, really? It didn't look to me like there was a whole lot of talking going on," the woman observed wryly.

Harold came to Marian's rescue. "Top of the afternoon, Mrs. Paroo!" he said in his usual charming, devil-may-care manner. "You caught us just as we had reached our decision. You see, the ancient Romans used a kiss to seal agreements, and I thought – "

"All right, Professor, I get the picture," Mrs. Paroo said with a laugh. "But if you two are at the point where you're carrying on like that in my front yard in the middle of the afternoon, it's high time you got married!"

Marian winced – though she had said nothing, her mother certainly wasn't shy about making leading statements to Harold regarding the topic of marriage. Still, this was strong, even for Mrs. Paroo.

But Harold handled her remark with his usual adept smoothness. "What you saw was entirely my fault, Mrs. Paroo. You have my solemn promise that I'll behave with more decorum in the future." He stood up. "Well, the hour is growing late, and I've got a costume to start working on. Until tomorrow, Mrs. Paroo, Miss Marian." With a tip of his hat, he took his leave.

Once Harold had disappeared around the corner, Marian rounded on her mother. "Mama – how could you embarrass me like that in front of Harold?"

Mrs. Paroo was unmoved. "You were both doing a pretty good job of making a spectacle of yourselves without my help. You're lucky it was me who interrupted, and not Mrs. Shinn or one of the other ladies!"

Marian blushed. "I meant your comment about marriage – are you trying to scare him away? It's miracle enough that a traveling salesman has decided to give up his profession and settle down in one place. He needs more time – "

"Time, eh?" her mother replied. "If Harold Hill was a soufflé out of the oven, he'd have fallen already. He's set up his music emporium and bought a house – which, from what I've heard, he's spared no expense in furnishing and decorating. What else is left?"

Marian sighed at her mother's single-minded focus on the prosaic. "Professor Harold Hill's Music Emporium is still in its fragile, early stages of existence. And as for those stories about his house, they're just idle gossip, Mama. If Professor Hill wishes to propose to me, he'll do it when he's good and ready – and not a moment before."

"Yes, but dropping a few ladylike hints here and there can go a long way in helping things along faster." Mrs. Paroo raised an eyebrow at her daughter. "You don't want to lose him, do you?"

"I'm not going to lose him," Marian said – but with more conviction than she actually felt. Privately, she was starting to wonder if her mother didn't have a point. She thought back to the many conversations she and Harold had shared in the past three months. In all their time together, Harold hadn't said the word marriage once. Marian was sure she would have remembered if he had. But she did remember all the loving looks he had given her, and all the details he had divulged about his checkered past. Surely, those counted for something – they were a concrete demonstration that he cared about and trusted her, which was a good start for two people in the process of building a life together.

Marian smiled and shook her head – she was just being silly. "Mama, you still haven't asked me about my costume for the Halloween masque. I have a picture I want to show you… "