George Washington's Last Duel by Thomas Nelson Page

Though Miss Jemima after this regarded the Major with renewed suspicion, / and confided to her niece that she did not feel at all safe with him, / the old gentleman was soon on the same terms with Rose that he was on / with Margaret herself. He informed her that he was just twenty-five / his "last grass," and that he never could, would, or should grow a year / older. He notified Jeff and his friend Mr. Lawrence at the table that / he regarded himself as a candidate for Miss Endicott's hand, and had / "staked" the ground, and he informed her that as soon as he could bring / himself to break an oath which he had made twenty years before, never / to address another woman, he intended to propose to her. Rose, who had / lingered at the table a moment behind the other ladies, assured the / old fellow that he need fear no rival, and that if he could not muster / courage to propose before she left, as it was leap-year, she would / exercise her prerogative and propose herself. The Major, with his hand / on his heart as he held the door open for her, vowed as Rose swept past / him her fine eyes dancing, and her face dimpling with fun, that he was / ready that moment to throw himself at her feet if it were not for the / difficulty of getting up from his knees.

A little later in the afternoon Margaret was down among the rose-bushes, / where Lawrence had joined her, after Rose had executed that inexplicable / feminine manoeuvre of denying herself to oppose a lover's request.