s heartiness, he forgot the compulsion of her
demands, he stretched in a large chair and felt that he had beautifully
come home. He was suddenly loquacious; he told her what a noble and
misunderstood man he was, and how superior to Pete, Fulton Bemis, and
the other men of their acquaintance; and she, bending forward, chin
in charming hand, brightly agreed. But when he forced himself to
ask, "Well, honey, how's things with YOU," she took his duty-question
seriously, and he discovered that she too had Troubles:

"Oh, all right but--I did get so angry with Carrie. She told Minnie that
I told her that Minnie was an awful tightwad, and Minnie told me Carrie
had told her, and of course I told her I hadn't said anything of the
kind, and then Carrie found Minnie had told me, and she was simply
furious because Minnie had told me, and of course I was just boiling
because Carrie had told her I'd told her, and then we all met up at
Fulton's--his wife is away--thank heavens!--oh, there's the dandiest
floor in his house to dance on--and we were all of us simply furious
at each other and--Oh, I do hate that kind of a mix-up, don't you? I
mean--it's so lacking in refinement, but--And Mother wants to come and
stay with me for a whole month, and of course I do love her, I suppose
I do, but honestly, she'll cramp my style something dreadful--she never
can learn not to comment, and she always wants to know where I'm going
when I go out evenings, and if I lie to her she always spies around and
ferrets around and finds out where I've been, and then she looks like
Patience on a Monument till I could just scream. And oh, I MUST tell
you--You know I never talk about myself; I just hate people who do,
don't you? But--I feel so stupid to-night, and I know I must be boring
you with all this but--What would you do about Mother?"

He gave her facile masculine advice. She was to put off her mother's
stay. She was to tell Carrie to go to the deuce. For these valuable
revelations she thanked him, and they ambled into the familiar gossip
of the Bunch. Of what a sentimental fool was Carrie. Of what a lazy
brat was Pete. Of how nice Fulton Bemis could be--"course lots of people
think he's a regular old grouch when they meet him because he doesn't
give 'em the glad hand the first crack out of the box, but when they get
to know him, he's a corker."

But as they had gone conscientiously through each of these analyses
before, the conversation staggered. Bab