Papa stood in the doorway, quietly brushing his coat sleeve.

“I didn’t hear anything,” he finally said. “What happened to Bonnie? Is she back in town?”

“The only folks she could go to were her relations at the hotel. I guess they don’t know about it yet. Well, live and learn, I always say.”

Grandma was rocking back and forth, fanning herself and looking moodily out the window. Florrie and Marcia were playing double solitaire on the floor but enormously interested in Mrs. Carmel’s cagey conversation. Papa evidently decided not to give her the pleasure of more questions, for he abruptly bolted out the door.

“There’s a mighty fine man,” stated Mrs. Carmel, nodding her head rapidly at the large needle she held in her hand to be threaded. “He puts me in mind of Mr. Carmel, just as full of ginger as they come, right up to the age of fifty. I’m glad he’s got a nice little wife now; she’s a trim little Party judging from her looks, seeing her across the street.”

“I don’t like a woman with little feet,” Grandma said, the Rough Riders dreamily waving back and forth before her face. “I’ve never known it to fail, there’s something mean about a woman with little feet. Not that some with big feet aren’t mean too, but just the same a little-foot woman is likely to be nasty in little ways.”

Florrie and Marcia kept watch out the window to see if they could catch sight of Lena and Aunt Lois when the seven-thirty came through. Florrie swore she could see Papa—she could tell him by his hat, she said—in the back room of the hotel, but Marcia didn’t think he’d be there on account of the money he still owed Mr. Purdy. They wondered if Lena could be made to come home again, and if Papa and Aunt Lois might not have a fight right there at the station. Aunt Lois might want to fight, they decided, but Papa cared too much about appearances. He’d pretend it was all his idea, Lena staying with Aunt Lois, and he’d tell everybody around town that it was something he’d talked Sweeney and Aunt Lois into doing, since they weren’t likely to have any children of their own, and Lena was a favorite with them. When they heard the train coming in, they begged Grandma to let them run over to the station and see.

“Go ahead,” she said. “But you don’t catch me going. I’m a little cross with Lois for putting this over on me. Lois has hurt my feelings just once too often.”

Sure enough, there was Mr. Sweeney, resplendent in an all-white suit and a Panama hat, holding open the door of the taxicab. Aunt Lois was pointing out her bags to the baggageman, and she too was all in white linen, with a big Panama hat and white oxfords. Lena was standing demurely by Mr. Sweeney, and it was a blow to see that she too was in brand-new clothes, pink linen and pink hat to match, with a little pink crocheted handbag. Florrie ran over to her and clutched her frantically, but Lena disengaged herself.