“My professor is still single,” she told Leland. “The last time I saw him was a year ago at Wendell’s house. He went to Caltech in July. When he learned about Colin he wrote to me, but I haven’t answered it—yet. I don’t know if I will. We weren’t what you’d call a ball of fire together, and I don’t want to start something that will lead me to settle—well, just settle.

“Colin came into the office in the early spring, before tax time. You saw his picture. The men who come into the office of a wholesale electrical supply house don’t look like him—or dress like him, either. I was the secretary to the office manager and because I knew the operation and how to run office machines, I was assigned to work with him. It took us until lunch time to set up in an empty room. We hadn’t exchanged more than orders and acknowledgments until then. He asked if I knew of a good place to eat. I told him where the bosses went and he asked me to join him. I said no, and he said all right, perhaps tomorrow. I had second thoughts. I had said no because I didn’t want to go where the bosses would be, for one thing—it’s a matter of the way things are done—and for another, I didn’t know him when he asked. But he was so gracious and at the same time so disappointed in the way he accepted my refusal, that I came right out and asked if I could change my mind. I tried to make myself pretty. Can you understand that?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you had to see his smile,” she said. “I swear I wish I didn’t have the memory of it. I had let go with him, and he let go in return, taking me in without embarrassment or hesitation. You can’t tell now, but I don’t have a bad waistline—and I do have a big can. He looked me up and down and then he sort of looked around me, all the while smiling the most natural way, warm and fresh. He said, ‘Sure, you can change your mind.’ He was just delighted and he wasn’t afraid to show me, but at the same time he made it clear in the way he looked in my eyes that he was going to treat me with dignity.”

She sipped her coffee. There were a few crumbs scattered between their coffee cups and water glasses. The restaurant was still crowded. Some of the faces had changed and Leland’s view of Karen was blocked by a man who had shifted his chair to face the man sitting beside him. Leland said to Norma, “I don’t want you to knock yourself out telling things that will hurt you.”