At the office he found neither Tarrant nor Eric Rauch. He had brought his work with him, and installed himself at his desk with the idea of going over his last chapters, and at least trying to eliminate the resemblances to The Corner Grocery. But the sight of the pages suddenly evoked the library where he had sat the night before with Halo Tarrant, and the floor on which he and she had knelt together to pick up the scattered sheets. The paper burned with her touch. He shut his eyes and pushed it aside… . Euphoria was the only way out… .

He opened his grandmother's letter. She always wrote affectionately, and the careless freedom of her phrases would call her up to him in the flesh, with her velvety voice and heavy rambling body. The livest person he'd ever known, he thought, smiling. Then he read: "Vance, child, I'm coming to New York—be there next week with Saidie Toler … " (she always wrote of her daughters by their full names) … "I guess you're not as surprised as I am; and I feel as if God Himself must be a little mite surprised too … " She went on to explain that, since Grandpa's death, she had been able to give more time to spiritual things, and had been rewarded by the invitation to preach in various churches, not only at Euphoria, New Swedenborg, and Swedenville, but way beyond Chicago, at big places like Dakin and Lakeshore—only she didn't call it preaching (he could be sure of that!) but "Meeting God"; didn't he think that was a good phrase? Her "Meeting God" talks had been published in Spirit Life, and the paper's circulation had gone up so much that they'd already contracted with her for another series; and suddenly she'd got an invitation from a group of intellectual people in New York, who called themselves "The Seekers"—a beautiful name, wasn't it? It appeared they'd come across some of her talk in Spirit Life, and been so much struck that they wanted her to come over to New York for a week, and speak in private houses, and give the "Seekers" a chance to submit their personal doubts and difficulties to her. ("You know," she added, dropping into her old humorous tone, "it's holiday work telling other folks what's wrong with them.") Of course, she said, she couldn't help but see God's hand in all this, and when Spirit Life offered to pay her fare and Saidie's out and back she telegraphed to the "Seekers" that she'd come at once—and Vance needn't trouble about her, because she and Saidie were going to stay with a Mrs. Lotus Mennenkoop, a lovely woman who lived at Bronxville and was one of the "Seekers"—but of course she must see her boy as soon as she arrived, and get acquainted with her new granddaughter; and would Vance be sure and call her up right off at Mrs. Mennenkoop's?