Alice Duer Miller

“ Mrs. Lewis looked at her coldly, as much as to say she had not intended to be, and, as a matter of fact, had not been so humorous as all that.
Then Meta returned to the room, and with the manner of beaming surprise which never left her—except on the rare occasions when she simply burst into tears—she announced that there was a policeman in the hall, come after Mr. Rossiter. At least, this was what she seemed to say; but there was enough doubt about it to keep the two mothers fairly calm, while Letitia ran out of the room to find out the truth. ”

“ You must believe in your husband's innocence. Your face alone would hang him.”
“I do believe in it,' answered Letitia; “only I can't help seeing some terrible coincidences. There is no one in the world knows more about poisons than Roger does. He is always talking about the Borgias and what they used. And after all, Nan, I was brought up to face facts. There is a streak of weakness in Roger where women are concerned—a certain vanity.”
“There is in every man.” ”

“ Rossiter was saying, trying to blow the mesh veil from between lips, while she undid the pin at the back of a frilled hat which would have looked equally well on a child of seven. “It is a dear little house, isn't it, Miss Perkins? But you must let me call you Nan. We all call you Nan—even Roger. He's so excited about your coming home. He said to Letitia only yesterday, 'I feel as if I had known Nan all my life.' Didn't he? You'll let me go up, dear, won't you? One does get a little bit grubby motoring, doesn't one?” ”

“ Nan's father was a professor in a small college, and it was pleasant to be asked to stay with the Lewises in their tiny New York flat. It was also agreeable to Letitia to be invited to share in commencement festivities with their prolonged opportunities to fascinate. Then Nan's father had accepted an appointment in China; but the separation did not lessen the intimacy—perhaps it even increased it; you can write so freely to a person living thousands of miles away. Letitia had written with the utmost freedom to her friend, who at that distance could not in any way be regarded as a competitor. ”

“ Letitia herself would have dreaded her if she had not been her daughter. It said a great deal for Roger Rossiter's integrity that his future mother-in-law liked him. It also said something for his financial situation. Mrs. Lewis had always intended her child to marry someone with money.
“It is not exactly that I'm mercenary,” she said. “I don't want Letitia to be specially magnificent; but I want her to have everything else, and money too. Why not?”
So when Nan heard the marriage had actually taken place, she felt pretty sure Roger must have enough to support Letty comfortably. ”

“ As Nan entered she shook her head slowly at her.
“The poor child,” she said.
“Roger or Letty?”
“Oh, both; but, of course, I was thinking of my own.”
“Mrs. Lewis, do you believe he's guilty?”
“No, my dear—nor innocent. I don't believe anything. I simply don't know. When you get to be my age, Nan, you will understand that es is possible; the wicked do the most splendid things at times, and the virtuous do the most awful. I don't know whether Roger did this or not. He may have. It may even have been the right thing to do, although poison—well, I'm surprised Roger descended to that.” ”

“ When they were in the sitting room, with the door shut, Letitia told them as much of the story as she had been able to get from the policeman. According to his account, Roger had been not in Albany the night before but in Paterson—yes, he did sometimes go there for the company; but he never stayed there overnight. He had gone to a cheap dance hall—no, not at all like Roger, though he did love dancing—and afterward had gone to supper with a man and woman. She was a concert-hall singer, or something of the kind. ”

“ It was really astonishing, she thought, how much she knew about him, this man she had never seen, more than she knew about lots of people she saw constantly. And so, as she rang the bell of his house, she had something of the same excitement that she might have had on seeing the curtain rise on a play about which she had heard endless discussion. ”

“ Roger repeats the most fatuous things women say to him, as if they had any importance.”
Letitia twisted her eyebrows in distress only half comic.
Nan hesitated; she knew just the sort of thing Letitia must have in mind.
Illustration: He Looked Undressed, Out of Place, Menacing
“Well,” she said, “I think men often seem rather naïve—particularly scientific men.”
“Yes,” Letty agreed quickly, “and of course Roger has always been so busy. He has never gone about much; but still, he'll say driving home, 'Did you ever think, Letty, that I was a specially dominating sort of person? ”

“ She molded them particularly in conversation with the opposite sex; she could not bear any competition as far as her admirers were concerned, Strangely enough, though Letitia was so much the prettier and more amusing of the two girls, she was always a little jealous of Nan, whereas Nan was never at all jealous of her. Letty herself explained the reason for this once in one of her flashes of vision: “It's because whatever you get from people is your own founded on a rock, Nan ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1942, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 81 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”