Who? Mrs. Eliot smiled down at her plate.

Gilbert Finch. Lilian found it odd to say his name.

Working somewhere I suppose, said Mrs. Eliot.

Hear that, Arthur? Mr. Eliot rarely looked at his son directly and did not now. This fellow has a job.

Poor devil, said Arthur.

24 • Signs of interest

24 • Signs of interest

SEVEN MONTHS later Lilian and Gilbert Finch announced their engagement. It happened in the following way.

He was at the Cunninghams’ Christmas party. Lilian supposed he had been there other years, but she’d not noticed him then. He handed her a glass of eggnog as she stood with Beany Sprague and excused himself to deliver drinks to his aunt. Irene Putnam’s little Bobby came over to show her a cookie in the shape of a snowman, and before she knew it, she was surrounded by children. Contrary to Mrs. Eliot’s report, Gilbert Finch did not appear particularly anxious to talk to her.

After New Year’s the Sedgwicks had a dinner party and seated Lilian next to Gilbert Finch. They had a nice chat about dogs and January and Agatha Christie, about which they were both fond. She noticed that he ate everything on his plate but the green vegetables, like a child. But for coffee the men stayed forever in the dining room discussing politics, a new interest of Cap’s.

Later that month, Lilian and Tommy Lattimore went with Marian and Dickie Wiggin to the moving pictures, and Dickie brought along Gilbert Finch whom he’d known from St. Mark’s. Lilian sat between the two single men and watched the movie cartoon of Hermann the Great Mouse, enjoying it more than she would have thought. Marian nearly had hysterics laughing, enthralled by such moments as the stove’s walking across the room and lifting the kettle off itself with its pipe. Lilian was sorry when Gilbert Finch declined to join them afterwards for dessert.

One Friday afternoon Lilian was walking with Nathaniel Weeks, a young man who volunteered with her at the hospital. Sometimes at the end of the day they would go window shopping on Newbury Street and Nathaniel Weeks, who had money, would try to get Lilian to say what she liked so he could buy something for her. She was not sure she wanted anything from Nathaniel Weeks. As they crossed the Common, they ran into Gilbert Finch on his way to North Station. A binocular case hung against his chest and he carried the smallest overnight bag Lilian had ever seen. He stood very still as if waiting for Lilian and Nathaniel Weeks to release him. His clothes were loose on his solid body, the collar crimped at the back, his sleeves baggy at the elbows, but somehow the disarray suited him. He was spending the weekend on the North Shore but didn’t say whom with. Nathaniel Weeks began to discuss a favorite topic, the weather. Lilian managed to ask about the binoculars.