“What nonsense,” Stella scorned. “Why, I didn’t even want you before you were born. I didn’t like babies.”

“Yes, so you’ve told me before,” laughed Laurel, “and you don’t want me now, do you? Poor thing! But you’ve got to have me, just as before I was born. You’ve got to have me. You see we happen to belong to each other, Mother.”

“But you belong to your father, too.”

Laurel puckered up her brow, thoughtfully, mopping the plate which she held half in the water, half out, round and round slowly with her dishcloth.

“Yes,” she acknowledged, “I suppose I do belong to Father, too, but it’s different. I’m fond of Father. I love to be with him. We always have wonderful times, but Father and I have never been through anything long and hard and disagreeable. We’ve always just had fun together. Somehow, having fun together doesn’t make two people feel as if they belonged the way suffering together does. Besides, Father doesn’t need me the way you do.”

“Pshaw! I don’t need you! I get along all right alone.”

“So did I last summer, those two days when you left me. I got along all right alone, too. Nobody to wash dishes with, nobody to talk with, nor to eat with, nor to sleep with, nor to do anything with. I know what it is like. No, Mother, you can’t live like that. It isn’t decent.”

“Decent! What do you mean?”

“Why, look at the way the apartment looks, for one thing. Not only the kitchen, but all the other rooms, too. I never saw them in a such a mess.”

“Well, but I didn’t know you were coming. If you’d written—”

“Exactly. Without some human being to clean up for, and have a little pride for, this place would look the way Grandpa’s used to before he died, in a little while. No, Mother. You can never live alone. Come, let’s change the subject. What show shall we see tonight?”

2

STELLA THREW DOWN her dish-towel and sat down at the kitchen table, her hands dropping limp into her lap. “But I’ve gone and given your father his divorce now,” she lamented. “I didn’t want a divorce! It will all be for nothing, if you won’t go and live with him for a while.”

“Mother, I’ve told you, and told you, I’m glad you’ve given Father the divorce. It was exactly the right thing to do. Father and Mrs. Morrison cared about each other before you and I ever saw either of them. You’ve fixed something right that was wrong.”

“Yes,” sneered Stella, “especially you. I’ve fixed you fine and right! Oh,” she sighed, her eyes resting mournfully on Laurel’s back as she stood before the sink, “it just almost kills me to see you doing work like that, Lollie.”