"A less expensive would do, wouldn't it, mother?" addressing himself, without once meeting Lilly's eye, to his mother-in-law.
"You're my guests," she said, trying to smile down old aversions. "This is my party."
"Years—" sobbed Mrs. Becker. "She looks the same, but I'm a stranger to my own child. Ben, we're strangers."
They were all suddenly in tears, Mr. Becker laying a clumsy hand to his wife's arm.
"Carrie, you promised—"
"Can't help it—can't help it," her lips bubbling. "I'm bursting with it. All these years. I can't hold in. What mother could?"
Only their arrival at the hotel stemmed the rising tide, but, once up in their aerial suite of rooms, the last bell hop tipped out, then broke the storm wave, flaying them all.
"Lilly—Lilly let me look at you. Baby—are you my baby—are you mine?
Years—O God—years—"
"Mamma—mamma—"
"Feel my heart. Ben—tell her—what I've suffered—"