“Now what do you make of that?” said Anita.
“It explains the expeditions with the children,” said Mr. Flood. “They were always too—philanthropic, to be quite—eh?”
“Oh, but she began those outings ages ago,” said Miss Howe quickly.
“Besides,” said Anita, “she didn’t go every week that summer. That’s the point. She told me herself that she was so busy that she had to get help—one of those mission women. Now why was she so busy?”
“Diversions in the country and attractions in town?” said Mr. Flood. “It all takes time.”
Anita nodded.
“You think that? So do I. And attractions in town! Exactly! At any rate I shall make that the big chapter, the convincing chapter, of the Life. I think I shall be able to prove that that summer was the climax of her affairs. I grant you that she met Carey that summer, but as she says herself, a few times only. We must look nearer home than Carey.”
“Oh, but there’s such a thing as love at first sight,” protested the Baxter girl, and Anita dealt with her in swift parenthesis—
“I was there when they first met. Shouldn’t I have realized——?” And then, continuing—“Well, reckon up my points. To begin with—the difference in her that we all noticed, the restlessness, the—unhappiness one might almost say, the aloofness—oh, don’t you know what I mean? as if she didn’t belong to us any more.”
“As if she didn’t belong to herself any more.”