Mary Stewart Cutting

“ It was after twelve when they separated.
"You must be tired," Winifred said to her husband.
"Oh, not a bit of it!" he protested. "What do you think of Della? Fine, isn't she! She thinks you're wonderful—so sympathetic; that's what she needs—sympathy. If I could tell you all she's been through—she doesn't talk about it, of course, but that husband of hers—— Why, she doesn't dare leave that child behind when she goes away! It's the only hold on him she's got."
"Hush! Don't talk so loud, Leslie; Mrs. Bosby will hear you!" said Winifred nervously. ”

“ There are any number of people who don't mind how much you're inconvenienced if it suits them," said Mrs. Silverton tragically. "But we're not going to stay another minute if you've got to get ready for company." She gave Winifred an affectionate little tap as she jumped up. "My dear, don't look so intense! It never pays to take too seriously what a man does. If I had taken Edward Silverton seriously I should be in my grave now, after five years!"
"Well, I believe in making husbands see when they have been thoughtless," said Mrs. Roberts meaningly, with a careful precision of speech. ”

“ Bosby, an old Amherst friend of his, with her little boy, for the night. She's on now from Indianapolis."
"Oh, Indianapolis!" said Mrs. Roberts, nodding sagely as though the fact covered some ulterior meaning. "Yes, I see! People are so literary out there, I suppose you can't expect much of them. It does seem a little odd to come on a man's invitation, doesn't it?"
"Oh, but I've always heard that she was very nice," protested Winifred eagerly. "I do think it's a little odd for her to be willing to come—with a child, too!—when Leslie told her about the new floors ”

“ To break this silence would, she knew instinctively, shatter something else—the delicate crystal of the lamp that held the flame of love, which could not be made perfect again, no matter how neatly it might be mended. ”

“ Winifred also paid two calls in the afternoon, in white gloves and her best clothes, insensibly hedging one round from too informal approach, and casually mentioned Mrs. Bosby's prolonged visit. She was still keyed up when she got home, though a little fatigued, and. it being Ellen's day out, with the dinner to get.
Putting on an old pink frock, after Matilda was bathed and put to bed, damp and rosy, with little clinging arms—one's own child was a joy!—she completed her preparations and still had time to spare—and more yet! It was late for little Major to be abroad. It grew later and later ”

“ Mrs. Brentwood came over for her granddaughter—who was being hustled into outdoor apparel—with eyes that kindly questioned, though she said nothing when Winifred announced that the visitors would perhaps be with them a week or two more. And over the telephone and in person Mrs. Iverson unflinchingly accepted invitations, or engaged tickets for the three of them for Mrs. Wilmer's dance the next night, and the Relief Fund bridge party on Friday, and the Zanzibar Exhibition for the unemployed, and the Crandalls' New England supper, the next week, for the War Sufferers. ”

“ Silverton with decision.
Events proved her right. Mrs. Bosby did not return until dinner time, with Leslie; little Major had been glued to the upstairs window for an hour watching for her, the floor below being still in chaos. She had, it appeared, been sitting all day in a corner of Leslie's office by the stenographer's desk, waiting for a telephone message from her husband or the lawyer, neither of which came, and only going out to lunch meekly with Leslie because he insisted on it.
"She hasn't the spirit to eat," he confided to his wife. ”

“ You see, she can't leave the child alone in a hotel."
"But why doesn't her husband see to the law business?"
"Hush! Don't speak so loud; she'll hear you—these walls are so thin! That's just it—he wouldn't raise a finger to help her. So she got a pass and came on herself. ”

“ Roberts and the Silvertons walked, unseen, behind.
"Well, what is it?" asked Winifred curiously of her husband as Mrs. Bosby, calling Major on her way, disappeared in her own room.
Leslie spread out his hands as though unconsciously to keep his wife away, and mechanically dropped into a chair; he looked tense and haggard.
"It's hot as the deuce in here. Open the window—she can't feel the draft here."
"Yes, she will. But what is it, dear?"
"She's had an awful time to-day—she won't get a thing from those lots; and she had a letter from her husband this afternoon. That man's a bad egg ”

“ Bosby her seat?"
"Now you two girls mustn't be formal; you're to be Della and Winifred to each other," said Leslie, beaming on them both.
"Yes," said Mrs. Bosby. "I was afraid I shouldn't be able to come to dinner at all, Mrs. Iverson—I had such a pain in my arm; but Major rubbed it out for me—he's very clever at it." Her smile rested for a moment pleasingly on the child, who responded proudly with a nod.
"I always rub her out," he announced. "Mother may I have some olives? Mother, may I have some olives? Mother, may I have some——"
"Be quiet, Major ”

“ Iverson your little girl's papa?"
"Yes."
"My papa is awful fond of me!" he confided. "That is why my mamma can always get what she wants. My papa and mamma fights terriable, Katie says. Katie is our cook. We had a nautomobile, and Papa sold it; and Mamma cried."
"Oh!" returned Winifred, staring, before turning to answer a question of Leslie's, with a side glance at Mrs. Bosby, who was consuming all the good things set before her, but without any apparent interest in the act; even when passing her plate afterward, on Winifred's invitation, for a second helping of Mrs. ”

“ Don't speak so loud. I told her that last week, and she spoke at once of the Young Women's Christian Association. She doesn't want to stay in the office. Well, I'm glad, at any rate, to do what I can for poor little Della—when I think of what her father did for me. Great Scott!" The sound of Major's slippers scuffing down the stairs became apparent. "Can't that child ever lift his feet?"
"Hush! Don't speak so loud," said Winifred.
Mrs. Bosby was red-eyed ”