Nevertheless, both knew that this moment must always mark the parting of their ways. Thus far they had gone shoulder to shoulder; hereafter one would lead. Also, both thought of Annie Cool.
IV
That evening after supper Homer Dean went over to see Annie. He did not telephone to ask if he might come, for Annie was always glad to see him, or to see Will, whether she knew they were coming or not. Homer got there early, so early that the Cools were still at supper, and he went into the dining room and sat by the door, refusing Mrs. Cool’s hospitable urgings that he eat a second supper with them. He did surrender to a piece of pumpkin pie, but it failed to raise his spirits. He was not yet able to face with composure the fact that Will had beaten him. Will was his friend; there was no malice in Homer. Nevertheless, he was disappointed, and discouraged, and sick at heart.
This was not apparent to Mr. Cool, nor to Annie’s mother, nor to her younger sister and brother. They all liked Homer, and they talked to him, all at once, but Annie said very little. She watched him, with a curiously wistful questioning in her eyes, but she did not at that time put her question into words.
After supper Mr. Cool and Homer went into the sitting room and smoked together while Mrs. Cool and the two girls cleaned up the supper dishes. Annie’s brother had gone downtown immediately after supper, and soon after they came in from the kitchen Annie’s sister was borne away by one of the boys of the neighborhood. Then Annie drew a scarf across her shoulders and suggested to Homer that they sit on the porch.
“It’s warm to-night,” she told him. “We shan’t be cold.”
So they went outside and sat down a little to one side of the front steps, where they were shadowed and hidden by some wistaria vines from which the leaves were just beginning to fall. And Annie asked at once:
“What is it, Homer? What is wrong?”
He did not ask her how she knew anything was wrong. In a boyish fashion he had rather enjoyed the melancholy mien he wore, and knew she had noticed it.
“Oh—nothing,” he said.