“If they try it in New York, we’ll simply have to move—we’re paying every cent for rent that we can spare—this minute.”
“Who said anything about apartment-house rents?” demanded Mr. Larry. “This is an article on lofts and warehouses.”
“Brute!” cried Mrs. Larry, glancing at Claire, who flushed furiously.
“I hope that gave you great satisfaction, Larry Hall,” she said severely, even as she flung him a dazzling smile.
“Well, it accomplished its purpose—it checked an impending avalanche of colors, materials and hats. When two women begin to talk clothes, a man must use drastic measures, or silently steal away. Now, of course, if you like, I’ll——”
He half rose from his easy chair and fairly challenged Mrs. Larry with his glance.
“Indeed, you shan’t go! We’ll talk about anything that suits the tired business man, or start the Victrola, or go to see moving pictures——”
They laughed together, these three who had come to have so many pleasant hours together. Claire Pierce had fallen into the habit of spending with Mr. and Mrs. Larry most of the evenings when she was free from social engagements. She felt the need of their unspoken sympathy and understanding attitude.
The interests closest to her heart these days found little response in her own home. Mrs. Pierce belonged to a number of advanced organizations, contributed liberally to the cause of suffrage and prated much of individual rights. But in matters matrimonial she still believed that a daughter should bow to the maternal will and be practical. She considered marriage between Claire and Jimmy Graves a direct defiance of her wishes, and altogether impractical.
She had been more relieved than sympathetic when Claire and Jimmy had quarreled. And when the small inconspicuous solitaire had reappeared on Claire’s finger and letters from Kansas City arrived with their old-time regularity, she was tolerant, but not congratulatory. Mrs. Pierce’s idea of the proverbial cottage in which love should thrive among roses, was a Colonial mansion on a Long Island estate, reached by a high-powered motor-car.