She felt herself change a little under his gaze. I’m not one to tell you much, she said. I’m not one of those girls who goes to a dinner party for fourteen every night.

Is that what girls in Boston do?

Some of them.

And you’re not a normal Boston girl?

I’m subnormal, she said.

Walter Vail expressed some interest in architecture about which Lilian knew a few things, having done some Saturdays with the Historical Society tours. He agreed with her that Hawthorne was preferable to Emerson, against the current fashion. As he spoke, there was something restless about him — Lilian imagined it had to do with his being in the forces — something urgent moving beneath the surface, hungry. Now and then his attention would be snatched up by someone passing, and he would glance up, startled, then return to her as if he hadn’t known what had come over him, concentrating again, asking her questions.

He said, I played hockey with your brother yesterday.

Lilian found it odd he knew she and Arthur were brother and sister. Really?

Yes, an interesting fellow. Very amusing.

Not everyone thinks so, Lilian said.

He told me a little about you.

He did? Lilian found that odd too.

Walter Vail nodded. Lilian discovered she had no idea what he was like, the way she did with other boys.

Will you go overseas? she said.

The day after Christmas.

They both fell silent.

You want to go, Lilian said.

Got to see what it’s all about over there, he said, sounding robust.

Don’t your parents mind?

Al and Mimi? He shrugged.

Lilian had never heard of parents being called by their first names.

I suppose, but they’re always away themselves. He hooked his hands around his knees, keeping his back straight. Steaming up from Brazil this week.

What does your father do?

Drinks mostly. Walter Vail laughed. He’s a nice man — doing his best to make sure I have no inheritance.

Lilian stared at the talk of money. The Eliots were well off, not fancy, but well off. They were not rich like the Cunninghams or the Wiggins or the Cabots, but as Arthur liked to point out, their father did not exactly need to work. Nonetheless, he went to the law office six days a week, taking off two weeks’ vacation a year, just as his father had. Lilian’s grandfather’s money came from banking and her grandmother, Henrietta Baker of the railroad Bakers, also had money. Lilian had never known exactly how much money there was. She knew only what her father had told her one Sunday afternoon, having summoned her to the library, and speaking of her future.

Walter Vail apparently did not have similar assurance.