"Now, Perry—please?" Replying to his wife's pale smile, Mr. Price coughed ambiguously.
"You need never be afraid of your father conducting himself in anything but a generous manner, Winnie. I wish you might have been at church last Sunday when he presented the new organ!"
"I know, but——"
"That's all very well, dear." Mrs. Price's voice had a disappearing quality. It floated and drifted from her lips and her words died away from her like the shed petals of a flower.
"I want—I want you and Papa to let me be happy! I—I——Sometimes I think nobody's happy. Mamma and Papa Farley are not. I——"
Above Winnie's bowed head Mr. and Mrs. Price exchanged glances.
"They don't deserve to be!" Mr. Price snorted after a minute.
Winnie glanced up. Mrs. Price's face twitched with worry.
"Now, Perry, dear, please? Remember! We decided not to speak of that again." She nodded toward the closed door of the hall. "I suppose by now you have heard all about Mamma and Papa Farley, Winnie—all the things that worried your father so, that he tried to tell you about when you and Laurence ran away—but living here with them as you are, I think it best for us to try to forget it. Mrs. Farley is a very long-suffering woman and has borne her lot very patiently."
Winnie wanted to ask more. She hid her face again. Once Laurie——