III
Roy came home for a week-end, but only after his mother had written him repeatedly urging a visit. He had really been at work—Mrs. Durland had this from the Dean of the Law School—but his enthusiasm for the profession his mother had chosen for him was still at low ebb. He wanted to find work on a newspaper; he wanted to go West; anything was preferable to setting up as a lawyer in an office of his own. It was disclosed that Mrs. Durland had arranged to mortgage the house to raise money with which to establish him. But it was the definite announcement of her purpose to bring Roy’s wife home immediately after commencement, that the young couple might, as Mrs. Durland put it, begin their life together, that precipitated a crisis in Ethel’s relations with her family.
The baby would be born in August and Mrs. Durland contended that the family dignity would suffer far less if Roy announced his marriage when he left the university and joined his wife in his father’s house at Indianapolis.
Ethel was outraged by the plan. She would not live under the same roof with that creature; and she availed herself of the opportunity to tell Roy what she thought of him. He had always been petted and indulged; his mother had favored him over the other children; they had all been obliged to practice the most rigid self-denial to educate him, and this was the result!
Roy surlily martyrized himself in meeting his sister’s attack. He had never wanted to go to college; he hated the law and if it hadn’t been for John Moore’s stupid meddling he would have extricated himself from the scrape with the girl he had been forced to marry.
“I never thought you’d really do it, mother,” Ethel moaned. “I didn’t think you’d be cruel enough to visit this shame on me. Everybody will talk; we’ll be ostracized by all our friends.”
Grace’s attempt to restore harmony only infuriated Ethel.
“I’ve told Osgood the whole story,” Ethel announced. “I felt that was the only honorable thing to do and he’s been splendid about it. We’ve been engaged since Easter and he’s ready to marry me at any time. I’d hoped we’d be able to live at home for a little while, but now I’m going! I can already feel that abandoned creature in the house! Osgood has a good offer in Cincinnati and I’ll marry him tomorrow and go away and never come back!”
“I would if I were you,” said Grace, as Ethel stalked from the room. “Safety first! Grab all the life belts.”
Ethel paused and pointed an accusing finger at Grace.
“You! You’re a pretty one to talk!”
Stephen Durland raised his head, coughed and returned to his reading. Roy announced that he was going down town. The front door slammed upon him and Mrs. Durland burst into tears.
“You don’t think—you don’t think Ethel means she’s going!”
“I certainly hope she means it,” Grace replied wearily. “Osgood’s not a bad fellow and maybe he can beat some sense into her.”