“We were always laughing, having a good time over something,” Papa said, wiping his eyes. “Sometimes I think we shouldn’t ever have left Peach Street.”

“No, sir, I don’t think you should have,” Grandma said, solemnly shaking her monument of curls. “Things wouldn’t have turned out this way if you’d stayed there. Well, you’ve got a new wife now. I hear she’s got a nice appearance.”

“And we’ve got the Furness house,” Papa said. “I always told Daisy we would but she wouldn’t believe me. Maybe I tried to do too much for Daisy.”

“Maybe you did, Harry,” Grandma admitted. “All Daisy ever wanted was you. I guess you wanted to spoil her.”

“I did,” Papa said, wiping his nose. “I wanted Daisy to have everything, but Daisy didn’t need fine clothes to look good. She looked good in any old rag.”

Mr. Hartwell brought Lena back, with a deep bow of thanks. She looked, he said, more and more like her Aunt Lois. It was time to go, and Mrs. Carmel gave the girls each a bag of candy mixed with salted peanuts. Mr. Hartwell and Papa had a final drink out of the bottle before leaving, and they both informed Grandma that she was just about the finest woman they’d ever had the pleasure of knowing. Mr. Hartwell said he would give a thousand dollars if his own mother, also a wonderful woman, could meet her. He hadn’t seen his mother for five years, he said, and a man felt pretty bad when he hadn’t seen his mother for five years. Grandma said it was too bad his mother didn’t live nearer to him, but he said it wasn’t that, but every time he was in his hometown, Chicago, he was so head over heels in work he didn’t have a chance to run out to see her.

Marcia and Lena waited with falling spirits for a chance to tell Grandma their own problem but there wasn’t any way of getting her attention without Papa hearing. Glumly, Marcia wondered if Grandma would save them anyway. Nobody was interested in anybody much but themselves. Maybe Grandma would take sides with their stepmother.

“I’ll call on your wife one of these days,” Grandma said to Papa. “Soon as business lets up I’ll drop in. I’ve never been through the Furness house.”

They left Mr. Hartwell at the Elks House, and almost at once their gaiety vanished. Marcia walked behind, thinking her heart would break. Mr. Hartwell had danced only with Lena, and if anybody was to stay with Grandma it would be Lena. There was never any hope, anywhere. Even Papa’s steps lagged as they approached their house, their good time forgotten in the apprehension of what was awaiting them. It was after ten and the house was dark. The girls started for the back door but Papa harshly ordered them to follow him up the front walk to the front door. He took out a key and unlocked it as his wife, in a night hair net and blue flannel kimono, turned on the stair lights. “You’re not bringing them all in the front way, Harry!” She cried out. “Wait, I’ll open the back door.”