I’m changed, I thought. Months ago, I would have loved being the center of attention for my friends, but everything felt different. Was it for the better? A year ago, I would have easily permitted Arthur to escort me, if for no other reason than putting icing on the cake of jealousy the other girls baked. I’d string him along and enjoy watching how hard he was trying to get me to care about him.

Now all that appeared so childish to me. Almost everything I was doing with these friends this afternoon seemed beneath me. I had outgrown them all practically overnight. Conversations with my girlfriends, even my best friend, Daisy, now loomed like clouds stuffed with words of the immature. I would drown in boredom, as I just nearly did moments ago. I wasn’t joking when I suggested I might take lessons in art. It was something I could do alone. Right now, there wasn’t a friendship or a prospect of one among my peers that appealed to me, even having someone at my side who adored me. All that seemed to be in the very distant past.

I hadn’t lied about sorting through my clothes, however. I had returned from Charlottesville years older. I wanted to rid my closet of anything and everything that looked juvenile. I glanced at blouses and skirts, petticoats and stockings, and then tossed on the floor everything I thought was ridiculous. I wasn’t left with much and thought I would work on my father to allow me to buy new things for daily life.

Later, when I descended to help my mother prepare our dinner, I decided my wardrobe was going to be the top of our talk. I had all my new arguments prepared, but my father stole the stage by announcing he was starting on the construction of a new house.

“It’s going to have all the new modern appliances and be twice the size of this one. I’ve bought acres of land across from the Fieldings’ house on Garden Grove.”

“Twice the size?” my mother exclaimed. “And I’m to take care of such a monster?”

“Oh no. We’re going to have more household help.”

“Can we afford all that?” she asked.

He smiled and looked at me as if I should have known. “Yes. I’ve made some investments of late that have boosted our net worth, and there is talk about our having a new chairman of the board. I think you might be looking at him. Early indications are that I have the necessary votes.”

“You’re taking my breath away, Harrington,” my mother said.

“No worries, Rosemary. I have a prospective buyer for this house,” my father continued. “There are so many new things to modernize our new home. I’ll be explaining and describing it all to you, Rosemary.”

“Exactly how big will this new house be?”