Marrying Butts, Part Two

Leta looked disheveled, and she knew it. What she wasn’t certain of was whether or not Mr. Butts, her date for the afternoon, would remark. In any case, she prepared a fictional story about it. The truth would never do, not with Mr. Butts, not if their relationship was to continue to grow. She was waiting outside of their agreed-upon meeting place when he appeared.

"Mrs. Bassett," he said and politely tipped his hat.

"Mr. Butts," she returned, still expecting him to comment on her appearance, but he didn't.

"Thank you for coming."

"My pleasure."

Still, he gave no indication that he saw her disheveled state.

Then he offered her his arm. "Shall we go in?" he inquired.

"Yes, yes, of course," she agreed as she took it.

By this time several other attendees had arrived and entered the little church, so Mrs. Leta Bassett and Mr. Arthur Butts strolled into the sanctuary and took their seats.

Frankly, Leta was surprised when he asked her to accompany him to this presentation. In the six weeks that they had known each other, she would never have guessed that he had any interest in flowers, and most certainly not in botanical talk about them. He was a farmer, but the two were not always related. In fact, none of the farmers in her own family cared at all about flowers.

Still, he asked her, and she agreed to meet him.

When he asked her, Mr. Butts made it clear to her that he had read about the lecture in the newspaper. She figured it was his way of trying to merge their separate lives. After all, he was a farmer, and she a city woman. Leta could only interpret that he was leading up to something.

In contrast to her appearance, Mr. Butts had freshly bathed, put tonic in his hair and wore his best suit. It was a little old fashioned, but Leta didn't mind. In fact, she found his general quiet and seeming backwardness quaint.

They sat near the rear of the little church, not in the last pew but one up. While she wasn't out of place in a church, having attended regularly since she was a child, Mr. Butts seemed more awkward than usual.

A plump woman who couldn't be bothered to fix herself up at all gave a mercifully brief welcome speech and then introduced the horticulturist. As soon as the lecturer appeared from behind a thick red velvet curtain, however, Leta's countenance fell. She had, she realized instantly, not two weeks earlier, experienced a rather passionate dalliance with him in the back seat of his car.

To be continued.