“I know. You can do me a favor if you will, honey. Do you know my souvenir book from the war? The one the men put together?”

“It’s on the shelf in the hall.”

“That’s the one. Would you mind if one of the girls from the office stopped by to pick it up? She can get you some magazines, if you want.”

“Okay. Tell her to get about a dozen. She’ll know what I want. I’m going crazy with this television.”

“All right,” he said. “If I miss your mother, what time did she say she would be home?”

“Four-thirty. She has a meeting later and she has to be out of the house at a quarter to seven.”

“I know about the meeting, too, sweet. Will you see that a place is set for me? I’m going to accept her invitation to dinner.”

“Gee, it took you long enough,” Stephanie said.

“The invitation was in a note, smarty. You’ll be nice to me if you want revenge at rummy.” He looked over at Mrs. MacIver; she was smiling.

“Who says I want to play with you? Wait—I take that back! I want to go to Montreal, too. Are you going to stay this evening?”

“Yes, I think so. Listen, Stef, how was Mommy feeling this morning? She seemed tired last night.”

“Tired is right! She was exhausted!” There was silence. He had made up the business of Karen being tired to give his question less consequence.

He asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. I was going to ask you something personal.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“It’s just that I wouldn’t want you to keep something from me because you think it would upset me.” That was enough; he could hurt her badly if she thought that something was wrong.

Steffie said, “I got carried away. I was going to ask what you were doing to her to make her so tired.”

“Oh.” She thought she was intruding. She was thirteen and the only thing she did not know was that he had been told she had heard it all, officially, over a year ago. He wanted to swivel around toward the window now, but didn’t. “Honey, would you laugh if I told you that I didn’t get up myself until after nine o’clock?”

“Oh, yes! It’s wonderful! Daddy, sometimes you’re an absolute terror.”

“If you tell her I said anything to you, I’ll break both your legs.” Mrs. MacIver laughed aloud. He said to Steffie, “I have to get off the phone. The girl will pick up the book after lunch.”

“Okay. Don’t let her forget the magazines.”

“Right, honey. I love you.”

She was gone. Sighing audibly, he swung around to Mrs. MacIver. “You heard? We can leave any time.”