XVII + 

Late in the afternoon of the first day of the month, Mrs. Merwent found her daughter bending over some papers on the writing table in the living room. + 

“What are you looking so cross about?” Nannie asked as she entered the room. + 

“I didn’t know I was looking cross,” said Lucy. “I was worried.” + 

“Well, you were, and you oughtn’t to do it. The lines on your forehead are already deeper than they are on mine. What in the world have you got to worry over? If your life had been like mine you might have a right to worry! With a husband like John you ought to be as happy as a bird.” + 

Lucy did not reply. + 

“What is it especially that’s worrying you?” Nannie asked again. + 

“I’m worried about finances,” answered Lucy. “Our grocery bills have already doubled and extra expenses have more than trebled.” + 

“Well, I certainly hope that my coming hasn’t had anything to do with it, Lucy.” + 

Lucy glanced up hesitatingly. “Well, to be frank, Mamma, we have a good many people here at odd times since you came,” she said with sudden resolution, “and I do wish you wouldn’t always be encouraging John to spend money.” + 

“I encourage John to spend money!” exclaimed Nannie. “I must say that’s a considerate way to talk to a guest, especially when it’s your own mother, and isolated as I am! You’re very kind and thoughtful. Very, Lucy!” + 

“Listen, Mamma,” Lucy began patiently. + 

“I should think ordinary tact would keep you from saying such things as that, Lucy, even if I were as callous as you seem to think, but when I’ve tried so hard to help you⁠—” Nannie was close to tears. + 

Lucy sighed. + 

“Such a speech is complimentary to your husband, too,” persisted Nannie. + 

“Now, see here, Mamma,” said Lucy, stung by the last remark, “I didn’t mean anything you seem to imply, and if you can’t understand, we won’t talk any more about it.” + 

“Oh, very well, Lucy! Of course I’m to blame as usual. I started it. This is the gratitude I get for overlooking the past and coming here. Poor Mamma, until the day of her death, never could get over the way you treated her, and why should I expect anything different? Well, it’s just as you like!” Nannie rose and swept into the hall. + 

Before she could ascend the stairs, John’s step was heard on the porch and the front door was unlocked. + 

“Hello, Nannie!” he almost shouted. “Get your best bib and tucker on. We’re going to see the Madcap Girl! It’s a dandy clear evening. You said you wanted to see it and I’ve got tickets. Where’s Lucy? Let’s have dinner at once,” and he passed on into the dining room where Nannie followed him. + 

Lucy, who had gone into the kitchen, reappeared. + 

“Hurry up dinner, Lucy.” John’s manner was impatient. “We’re going to the theatre.” + 

She stopped, with a dish in her hand, and considered an instant. + 

“What about Dimmie?” she asked. John frowned irritably. + 

“Hang Dimmie!” he ejaculated, petulantly. “I should think if Mrs. Hamilton is such a friend as you say she might take care of him one night!” Again Lucy was silent a moment. + 

“All right,” she acquiesced finally. + 

“You don’t seem very jubilant about it,” commented Nannie, who was now all smiles. “I appreciate it,” she added. + 

When they were seated at the table John produced the tickets. + 

“Oh! A box!” cried Nannie, examining them gleefully. “How nice! I’ve wanted to see the Madcap Girl for so long!” + 

“It’s certainly a great play, by all accounts,” observed Lucy acidly. + 

“Why, everybody says the costumes are lovely, and there are some of the newest dances introduced,” contended Nannie. “I’ve been crazy to see it.” + 

“We can’t afford a box, and besides I’ve no clothes suitable for a box.” Lucy’s voice grew sharper with each word. “If you would throw away money, John, why didn’t you pick out something worth seeing? I’d rather have seen Ethel Barrymore in Midchannel, even if I sat in the gallery, than this nasty, silly thing in the best box in the house!” + 

“Why, you can see Midchannel too,” interrupted John, somewhat crestfallen. + 

“No, I can’t. We’ve spent twice as much on theatres already this month as we ought to in half a year!” + 

“Well, Lucy, Nannie especially wanted to see this play, and I think we ought sometimes to sacrifice our own tastes for her.” + 

“I’m sure I didn’t know John was going to get tickets when I innocently said I had wanted to see the play,” said Nannie. “I don’t see that I am to blame for it.” + 

“No one’s to blame, Nannie,” championed John. Then, turning to Lucy, “I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, Lucy. If you don’t want to go, say so.” + 

“Yes, indeed,” chimed in Nannie. “I don’t need to go. It’s not a matter of life and death. In fact I have had a little headache anyway, although I wouldn’t think of spoiling the evening after poor, dear John has been so thoughtful.” + 

“Well, what are you going to do?” demanded John in the captious tone he had come to use more and more often of late. + 

Lucy glanced at her mother before speaking. + 

“I’ll go,” she decided, rising from the table, “that is if Mrs. Hamilton is going to be at home.” + 

As Nannie rose also a glance of sympathetic understanding passed between her and John. + 

The two women ascended the stairs. + 

Lucy prepared Dimmie for the night, and, before changing her clothes for the street, went out the back way and through an alley gate into the Hamiltons’ yard. Dr. Hamilton called to her from the porch and she made her request. She returned home without telling John the result of her mission but when she dressed herself and descended to the living room she found him waiting. She wore a blue foulard dress and a black hat and as she came in she was drawing on her gloves. + 

“Mrs. Hamilton will be over here in a moment,” she informed him coldly in answer to his glance of inquiry. The two sat in silence as they waited for Mrs. Merwent to descend and the neighbor to arrive. + 

“I’m afraid we’ll be late,” remarked John regretfully, after a restless pause. “When did Mrs. Hamilton say she could come? Hadn’t you better call Nannie?” + 

“Mother knows perfectly well what time it is,” responded Lucy, and added, “Mrs. Hamilton had just come in from a long day in town and had to change her dress.” + 

“You’re not very considerate of Nannie, Lucy.” + 

“Well, you make up for it!” Lucy’s manner as she said this was a surprise to John. + 

“Lucy, I don’t understand you at all.” + 

“Be careful not to try too hard, John.” + 

“Oh, well, if you want to be sarcastic, all right!” Silence descended again. + 

Mrs. Hamilton entered the house through the kitchen where Lucy had left a door ajar for her. She looked tired but apologized good humoredly for her delay. John greeted her stiffly. + 

“The doctor may be called out,” she explained, “in which case he’ll carry Dimmie over to our place.” Lucy bit her lips. + 

“I appreciate so much your doing this,” she said earnestly. + 

“My goodness! What are friends for!” Mrs. Hamilton laughed, trying to draw John into the conversation. + 

After a quarter of an hour had elapsed Lucy walked into the hall and called, “We’re waiting, Mamma.” + 

“Wait a minute, Lucy. You hurry me so I can’t half dress,” Nannie shouted back. + 

When she finally appeared she wore a grey and green evening gown, a grey opera cloak, and grey satin slippers. + 

She greeted plainly garbed Mrs. Hamilton with unusual geniality. + 

“We really ought to have a machine to go in!” John exclaimed when he saw Nannie. + 

“Oh, no,” said Nannie cheerfully. “We’ll get through all right⁠—although it’s dear of you to think of such things, John.” + 

When they were seated in the train John said, “Jim is going, too. He thought he couldn’t leave his work but I persuaded him.” + 

“Did you tell him we were all coming?” queried Nannie. + 

“Oh, yes,” John answered. + 

Jim, in evening clothes, met them at the station. + 

“You go ahead with Lucy,” he suggested to John, after greetings were exchanged. “You’ve got the tickets.” + 

“No. You go with Lucy,” said John, “and I’ll come on with Nannie.” + 

By the time they reached the theatre and entered their box the overture was ending. The curtain rose as they seated themselves. + 

“Now, didn’t you like it?” Nannie asked Lucy as the curtain fell on the final tableau of the first act. + 

“I certainly didn’t like that song,” returned Lucy. + 

“What song? The one about the butterfly?” + 

“No. The other one, ‘What Would Robinson Crusoe Have Done?’.” + 

“Why, I thought it was cute.” + 

“It was vulgar.” + 

“Why, I didn’t think of it’s being vulgar till you spoke of it just now.” Nannie smiled at John. + 

“It sure was,” said Jim, rising. “May I go and smoke?” he asked Lucy. + 

“Yes,” she replied. + 

“And I, too,” said John. + 

“You sure can, John,” smiled Nannie. + 

“Didn’t you think the dresses in that yachting scene were just grand?” she continued when the men had left her and Lucy alone. + 

“Yes,” agreed Lucy absently. + 

Nannie began to study the audience through her opera glass. + 

“Why, there’s Miss Powell!” she ejaculated in a pleased tone. “She’s bowing to us. Don’t you see her, Lucy?” + 

“No,” answered Lucy, barely glancing in the direction her mother indicated. + 

Nothing more was said until John and Jim appeared. + 

“Now let’s go and have a little supper,” John proposed when the performance was at an end. + 

“That will be delightful!” cried Nannie, clapping her hands. + 

Lucy looked at John. + 

“We’ll get home so late,” she objected, “and Mrs. Hamilton can’t leave until we get back.” + 

“Darn Mrs. Hamilton!” he declared. “She’s probably carried Dimmie over to her house and there’s plenty of time before the last train.” + 

“I don’t want any supper,” persisted Lucy. + 

“Oh, come on, Lucy!” said John with his newly acquired querulousness. “What do you want to spoil everything for?” + 

“But I’d rather not,” Lucy insisted. + 

“Why?” + 

“Well, I have a headache, for one thing.” + 

“All right,” acquiesced Nannie, in the tone of a patient martyr. “Let’s go home then.” + 

“It’s a shame!” John asserted. “Your evening will be spoiled, Nannie.” + 

“Oh, my pleasure don’t matter, John. If Lucy would rather not it’s all right.” + 

“I’ll take Lucy home and you two can stay,” interrupted Jim in a rather aggressive tone. + 

“Oh, no,” refused Mrs. Merwent. “You needn’t do that. We’ll go.” + 

“I’m not very strong for eating at this hour myself,” Jim continued, “and I don’t mind seeing Lucy home a bit.” + 

“Well, all right, Jim⁠—if you don’t mind,” agreed John, helping Nannie with her opera cloak. + 

In the foyer they met Miss Powell, in an elegant black décolleté gown, and an opera cloak of old rose. + 

“Why, how do you do, Mrs. Merwent!” She came up to Nannie and shook hands. “I’m so glad to see you.” Then, turning to John and Lucy, “Mr. Winter, Mrs. Winter.” + 

“You know Mr. Sprague, Miss Powell,” said Lucy. + 

“Why, yes. How do you do, Mr. Sprague?” She turned to Nannie again. + 

“How are you enjoying your stay in Chicago by this time, Mrs. Merwent?” + 

“Oh, very much, thank you,” replied Nannie. + 

“You are looking so well,” Miss Powell pursued. “I declare I’m jealous. No one would ever dream of taking you for Mrs. Winter’s mother.” + 

“Thank you,” cooed Nannie once more. + 

“Won’t you have some supper with us?” John invited. “We’ll see you safely home afterwards.” + 

“Oh, no, thank you very much. My brother is waiting for me. I must run!” And with a smile and handshake, Miss Powell was gone. + 

“Come on, Lucy,” urged Jim, taking her arm. The two left the theatre, John and Nannie going in the opposite direction, toward a fashionable restaurant. + 

Jim and Lucy were both very quiet in the car that took them toward Rosedene. It was moonlight outside. Jim scrutinized Lucy’s profile a long while as she stared through the window, but he said nothing. When they had alighted at their station and walked to the house, even after the door was unlocked, Jim delayed a little on the porch, as if hoping that Lucy would invite him in. But she did not. + 

It was very still down the street. Rosedene seemed to be asleep. On the side of the house toward the country stretched the dim, misty vista of a meadow, with here and there real estate agents’ sign boards looming like crucified ghosts. The air had a tang of cold that belied the promise of the summer which, according to the calendar, was already upon them. + 

“Thank you so much for bringing me home,” was all Lucy said. + 

“Thank you for letting me,” he responded. “You know I would thank you for letting me do more, Lucy.” + 

“I know, Jim.” Her tone was frank and friendly. + 

“Lucy⁠—” + 

“What, Jim?” + 

“Oh, well⁠—nothing. Goodbye,” and he held out his hand. + 

Lucy put hers in it. His clasp was unwontedly warm. As he turned away and she went into the hall she felt her fingers tingle. + 

Mrs. Hamilton had remained upstairs near Dimmie and when Lucy entered the bedroom was seated in a rocking chair with her eyes closed wearily. She started and looked up. + 

“I’m so sorry!” Lucy began feelingly, but Mrs. Hamilton interrupted her. + 

“Don’t say anything about it, Mrs. Winter. Under ordinary circumstances I wouldn’t have even been tired, and it doesn’t matter a bit. I’ll just go over home now.” She rose and smoothed down her dress. + 

“Aren’t you afraid to go alone? Let me go with you.” Lucy started after her friend but Mrs. Hamilton was already half down the stairs. + 

“Not a bit!” she called cheerily over her shoulder, waving Lucy away. “Shut the door after me.” Lucy descended to the kitchen and bolted the door, then she went back to the bedroom and undressed but she did not go to sleep. + 

It was a long time before John and Nannie arrived. They came in a taxicab, their voices betraying high spirits, and before ascending the stairs they talked and laughed in the dining room for a while. + 

Finally Nannie said warningly, “We might wake Lucy, John,” and the voices and laughter became more subdued. + 

At last they tiptoed upstairs, where John found Lucy yet awake. He called Nannie. As she came into the bedroom, Lucy reached for a dressing sacque and threw it around her shoulders. Nannie and John sat on the edge of the bed and described the supper. + 

“You don’t know what you missed, Lucy! We had a lobster à la Newburg, and the best wine! Sparkling Burgundy, wasn’t it, John? I didn’t know you could get wine now. I never ate so much in my life. But dear John has such perfect taste in ordering refreshments! We met Miss Powell again in the restaurant,” Nannie rattled on, “and she introduced her brother. That’s how the head waiter let us have the wine. I’m going to a theatre with them next week. He’s said to be worth two million dollars.” + 

“We missed the last train,” volunteered John. + 

“We had the best time,” declared Nannie ecstatically. + 

“Is your head better?” John inquired of Lucy. + 

“Yes, poor, dear Lucy! I was so sorry. But I suppose you had a good time too,” Nannie finished slyly. + 

“What do you mean, Mamma?” + 

Nannie laughed. + 

“Why, you and Mr. Sprague had a fine chance for a tête-à-tête.” + 

“Did Jim stay long?” John asked suddenly. + 

“No. He didn’t come in at all,” answered Lucy with forced naturalness. + 

“Well, I must go to sleep, or I’ll look a fright in the morning. Good night, Lucy.” + 

“Good night, Mamma.” + 

“Good night, Nannie,” said John. + 

“Good night, dear John,” returned Nannie. “Here, wait a minute. I’ve got to kiss you for giving me such a lovely evening,” and she suited the action to her words. Then, with a silvery, “I hope you rest well,” she tripped out of the bedroom and across the hall. + 

“You ought to have stayed, Lucy,” remarked John, as he was preparing for bed. “We had lots of fun.” + 

Lucy did not speak. + 

“I would have come home with you if Jim hadn’t offered,” he went on, in the tone of one combating an argument, “but seeing that he didn’t care for any supper either, I thought there was no need for spoiling Nannie’s enjoyment. Those Hamiltons are always bragging about liking us and this is the first time we’ve ever asked anything of them as far as I know.” + 

Lucy was still silent. + 

John completed his preparations for bed, whistling softly one of the airs they had heard at the play. When ready, before turning off the light, he came around to Lucy’s side of the bed and bent down to kiss her. + 

She buried her face in the pillow. + 

“Oh, very well. Just as you like,” he said, and switched off the light. + 