Must go. He stretched out his long legs. While Arthur might say he was going for cards at the Cunninghams’ or caroling at the Nobles’, it was most likely a lie.

How’s Amy Snow? said Lilian.

His sheepish smile was lit up by the streetlight. Wouldn’t you like to know, he said and disappeared.

Her breath came out in a mist and she continued to sit, watching the night. She had the beginnings of ideas for happiness, but they were vague. Daydreaming was as close as she could get to them. She was beginning to see they were different from the ideas her parents had for her, her sense of happiness felt grand and sweeping, and theirs was small and tidy.

One day happiness would come to her. She did not think of it or expect it but sensed the faint ripening of it — a scene in the future, colored and polished and full of pleasant sounds. She would wait. It was the essence of life after all, and one needed patience. She was not as patient as she would have liked, but she was working on it.

5 • Skating

5 • Skating

THE SKY looked like snow and the air, drained of color, drew out the color in Lilian’s cheeks.

Walter Vail was already out on the ice, a graceful figure taking long striding sweeps at the outer edge of the pond, his dark scarf loose on his army coat. Down at one end a game of curling was going on, and now and then a shout would rise from the ice. Madelaine Fenwick was nowhere in sight. Walter Vail spotted Lilian. She was wearing a wool coat with a center panel buttoned on either side and a beret with a checkered trim low to her eyes. He skated straight to her, cutting through the other skaters, the smile on his face so broad she glanced down.

You came, he cried, and struck an odd but appealing pose, between surprise and perplexity.

A few of us came over, Lilian said, and gestured toward Arthur and some of their friends. Walter Vail gave Arthur a hearty wave which Arthur returned with an ironic air, looking particularly sallow and dissipated this afternoon.

Lilian laced her skates without hurrying, finding a satisfaction for some reason in lingering. She put on her gloves and looked idly about for Arthur who had disappeared.

She stepped out onto the ice with Walter Vail who leaned toward her in an interested way.

I’ve been doing some investigating about you, he said. Lilian liked this, but wasn’t sure what to make of it.