Laurel was wiping out the large tin dishpan, now, with her dishcloth, which she had just wrung out with several vigorous little twists. Afterward she hung up the dishpan on a hook underneath the sink and spread out the dishcloth to dry on top of it. Then proceeded to clean the soapstone sink. She used a small rubber-edged shovel for the purpose, scooping up small bits of refuse with it, and emptying it now and then into her free hand.

“I like making things bright and clean,” she called out above the loud scraping noise she was making with her shovel, “but if you prefer,” she went on cheerfully, “we’ll have a servant. You’ve often said, since the divorce, we could afford several servants if we wanted them.”

“Oh, but, Lollie, I don’t know how to run a lot of servants. Besides, what’s the use of servants when there’s nobody to serve? I can’t give you a coming-out party. I used to think I could, but I know now I can’t. No. It’s no use. It’s not in me. I’ve done all I can for you.” She lifted her upturned hands, lying idle in her lap, and then let them drop, dead and lifeless. “She was going to bring you out in New York society, Lollie,” she droned on, “she said she was. You’d be going to dinners, and dances, and balls. You’d be having lovely clothes. You’d be having lovely friends—young ladies in limousines calling mornings for you to go shopping with them; young men in limousines calling evenings for you to go—”

“Mother! Please stop. You’ve told me all that before.”

“I haven’t told you one thing. I haven’t said one word about one special thing. Laurel, listen, if you go to New York for a season you’ll be almost sure to run across Richard Grosvenor! He knew Mrs. Morrison, and—”

“Oh, don’t drag in Richard Grosvenor.”

“And if you did—you can’t tell. He was crazy about you—”

“Now, Mother.”

“Well, he was.”

“I’m all over Richard Grosvenor, now, Mother.”

“You’re not. No such thing.”

“But I am! I am! I never even answered his letters last fall.”

“His letters!”

“Yes. He wrote me—twice. Mrs. Morrison forwarded them. I never told you because you were so silly about him.”

Stella shoved her chair back from the table with a fierce jerk and stood up.