A/N – This chapter focuses on events that happen in canon.

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The summer girl is a good convenience. She does not expect to be fondled and fed on dainties that during the winter. The young man who cultivated her acquaintance knows just when and where to find her. He is not expected to become acquainted with her before strawberry time. She does not display her fairy charms, so to speak, until the cream season is thoroughly ripe. The hammock in which she swings and the perforated sleeves that she wears do not appear before June.
~The Leavenworth [KS] Times 5 August 1883: p. 2, first body paragraph

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Trouble at the Paroo front door

The first time Harold Hill was rejected by Marian Paroo, he was honestly surprised.

His usual ruses for making the acquaintance of a lady – the dropped handkerchief, the specious claim of previous familiarity – were rejected abruptly and unequivocally. And to compound her refusal, she slammed her door with such bristling coldness that the conman felt a chill run through him despite the warmth of the summer evening.

Clearly, this was a gal who was wary of seducers, and he couldn't help but admire her gumption. Not many women had the strength of will to give Harold the brushoff when he turned on the charm. Whatever the maiden-lady librarian's true proclivities in the bedroom may be, she clearly had standards. And he appreciated that, because it would be all the sweeter when he eventually convinced her to succumb to his advances.

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Sincere in Madison Picnic Park

The second time Harold Hill was rejected by Marian Paroo, he sort of expected it.

Once again, he was forced by circumstance to approach her from a subservient station, trailing along in her icy wake as she marched resolutely away from him. This was not a position that Harold liked being in, but he was never a man to let a little adversity and disadvantage keep him from pursuing what he wanted with gusto.

He did enjoy disconcerting the haughty librarian momentarily when he warmly invited her to call him Professor – from her nonplused expression, she was clearly expecting him to say Harold – but she rallied quickly and denounced both him and his methods with such passionate animosity that it only firmed his resolve to win her over.

While a lesser man might have been demoralized by such intense loathing aimed in his direction, Harold saw opportunity. The opposite of love wasn't hate, it was indifference. And Miss Paroo was anything but indifferent to him. If he could transform that wonderful passion of hers into love – or at least infatuation – he'd be in.

If ever there was a fella who could overcome such a daunting challenge, it was certainly him. So the swindler whistled cheerfully while he strolled off in the opposite direction, as if he'd already won.

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Marian the Librarian

The third time Harold Hill was rejected by Marian Paroo, it was his grandest defeat of all.

Harold hadn't won her over, but he'd made a great deal of progress in his campaign – he managed to back the not-so-maiden-lady librarian into a corner and breathe on her glasses just as he told Marcellus he would, and this befuddled her so much that she almost let him kiss her before she snapped back to her senses.

Given that she was the sadder but wiser girl after all – he was downright thrilled when those gossipy old hens confirmed his suspicions about Miss Paroo – it was only a matter of time before he succeeded in melting her ice-queen facade. Sadder but wiser girls were a specialty of his, and he knew exactly how to breach their defenses. It took a bit more patience and persistence to wear such gals down, but the payoff was well worth the trouble.

While it was clear that the lovely librarian still loathed him, he'd teased out a genuine glimmer of flustered attraction that was just the ammunition he needed to crumble the foundations of those impenetrable walls surrounding her heart.

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Selling in the Paroo back yard

The fourth time Harold Hill was rejected by Marian Paroo, he was disheartened but not deterred.

He'd gotten her kindly Irish mother to like him through ingratiation and flattery, and her allegiance to his cause would help strengthen his esteem with the librarian. Once her reticent little brother laid eyes on his shiny new cornet, he'd be staunchly loyal to the professor, too. (Never mind that the boy wouldn't learn how to play this instrument properly – the conman made it a point never to think that far ahead, lest he lose his nerve.) Harold planned to deliver Winthrop's cornet personally, so his headstrong sister would know beyond a doubt that he was the architect of her beloved brother's joy.

By the time the Paroo family figured out what Harold truly was, he'd be long gone from River City. Though he knew they would hate him, he still hoped – foolishly, even sentimentally – that Marian would remember their time together with at least a little fondness and delight.

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Trading rumors in the Paroo front yard

The fifth time Harold Hill was rejected by Marian Paroo, he'd had enough.

He thought after their friendly and flirtatious conversation in the Candy Kitchen that he'd finally made headway in his summer seduction. But when he tried to seal the deal with the librarian – taking care to wear his best suit and display his most polished manners when he called on her one evening not long afterward – she demurred and shrank from his embrace.

Harold had never worked so hard to win a woman in his life, and he'd never focused so wholly and intently on a single target for such an extended interval. He'd ignored the longing glances of all the other River City females for weeks now, and for what? So the frosty librarian could alternately resist him with her words and insist him with her glances yet again?

A man could only humble himself so much in the pursuit of romance, and it was time to leave Miss Paroo to stew in her own self-imposed seclusion. Let her feel the frustration of unfulfilled wanting for once! He could easily find much more willing feminine company to warm his bed, anyhow. Of course, it wouldn't be nearly as delectable as making love to the librarian, but Harold was so riled up by the anticipation his amorous intentions had kindled in him that he needed to blow off steam. At this point, he was so desperate for release that he'd take it wherever he could find it. In all likelihood, he was going to have to leave River City in the next day or two, and after a summer of steadily simmering desire, he needed some satisfaction before he was forced to endure the cold solitude of being on the lam again.

But then, as Harold bade the librarian a curt goodnight and started to skedaddle, he heard the most beautiful sound in the world: Marian's footsteps clambering desperately down the stairs after him, and her anguished voice calling out his name.

Perhaps it would have been smarter to make her chase him just a little while longer, give her just a little taste of her own medicine before consummating the passion that smoldered between them. But Harold was in no frame of mind to resist her charms, which he discovered were just as potent as his own. Almost before he knew what he was doing, he turned immediately back and found himself staring into the librarian's eloquent hazel eyes, which were just as eager and desperate as he felt.

As Harold stood breathlessly face to face with the woman he wanted so badly, all thoughts of finding another companion were knocked right out of his head. As long as he remained in River City, it was Marian Paroo for him, or no one. Even though he still had a little ways to go to earn her trust – something or someone had obviously ruffled the librarian's feathers about him, and he was going to get to the bottom of it or get tarred and feathered trying – he resolved to himself that he'd never give Marian cause to reject him again.