Dorothy Dale's Engagement

Dorothy Dale's Engagement by Margaret Penrose

Dorothy Dale and her high-spirited chum Tavia Travers travel unchaperoned to New York City for a fall shopping trip, guided by Dorothy's practical caution and Tavia's love of extravagance. En route they notice a striking Western stranger whose initials, "G. K.," they spot on his luggage; he later gallantly helps them with their bags and turns out to be staying at their hotel. He introduces himself as Garford "Garry" Knapp, a cowboy-rancher from near Desert City who has come East to sell rundown land left him by his father, hoping to build capital after a falling-out with his wealthy prospector uncle, Terrence, who stormed off to Alaska and cut Garry out of his fortune. During the shopping trip, Tavia mistakenly picks up a stranger's handbag in a department store, sparking an accusation of theft from an indignant customer; Garry, who happens to be in the store with the proprietor, smooths over the embarrassing scene. Tavia's own bag, containing nearly all her spending money, turns out to have been taken by a frightened young cash-girl; the bag is later anonymously returned to the hotel through Garry's intervention after the girl's sister confides in him. Dorothy and Tavia spend an enjoyable evening with Garry, but Dorothy grows cold and suspicious after glimpsing him in what seems an intimate roadside conversation with a shabbily dressed girl — actually the cash-girl's sister explaining the bag's return. Before the misunderstanding can be cleared up, Garry departs suddenly for the West, leaving Dorothy a note and a bouquet of old-fashioned flowers, having learned from the talkative Tavia that Dorothy is a considerable heiress — a fact that makes him instantly resolve never to court her, for fear of seeming to chase her money. Back home at The Cedars with her father, Major Dale, her Aunt Winnie White, and cousins Ned and Nat, Dorothy realizes she has fallen genuinely in love with Garry and confides in her family. Meanwhile Tavia, who has been secretly corresponding with her old Western admirer, cowboy Lance Petterby (now happily married, a fact she has coyly concealed), uses the correspondence to track down Garry's whereabouts and warn him, through Dorothy, that the New York land speculators Stiffbold and Lightly intend to cheat him on the price of his ranch. This deception about the letters causes a painful rift between Tavia and Nat White, who has proposed to her and is hurt and jealous, not knowing the truth she is forbidden to reveal. Major Dale, informed of the scheme by Dorothy, has his lawyers offer Garry a generous, legitimate price for his land, luring him back East to close the deal — and unknowingly back into Dorothy's orbit. Garry arrives, is warmly welcomed at The Cedars, and grows close to the whole family, but remains guardedly honorable toward Dorothy once he learns of her wealth and prospective inheritance. He refuses the major's outright offer to bankrock the development of his ranch into valuable wheat land, insisting he cannot accept what he sees as charity engineered for Dorothy's sake, and sells his land only at a fair market price, resolved to make his own fortune before he will allow himself to court her. Ned becomes engaged to visiting friend Jennie Hapgood, throwing into relief both the stalled romance between Nat and Tavia and the unresolved tension between Dorothy and Garry. After a tender skating outing and a dramatic near-accident on thin ice, Garry and Dorothy grow closer, but he departs again for the West, determined not to presume upon her fortune, leaving Dorothy resigned to waiting and hoping, and the household's young people entangled in overlapping courtships, misunderstandings, and unspoken loyalties as the story closes amid a Northern winter of sledding, snowstorms, and small domestic crises involving Dorothy's mischievous younger brothers, Joe and Roger.

By Margaret Penrose · First published 1917 · Genre: Romance, Young Adult/Coming of Age, Domestic Drama · 30 chapters · 61,604 words

First lines

"Now, Tavia!"

"Now, Dorothy! " mocked Octavia Travers, making a little face as she did so; but then, Tavia Travers could afford to "make faces," possessing as she did such a naturally pretty one.

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young adult · coming of age · friendship · romance · adventure · mystery · school life · early 20th century · American fiction · female protagonist · engagement · series

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