"Zoe, I'm glad you wore this instead. Did your grandmother feel badly that you didn't wear the one she gave you?"
"I wasn't myself in it. No—room."
In the corridor, going out, Bruce stepped suddenly out of his office into their path.
Zoe's hand had shot out.
"Hello, you!" she said.
He looked at her through a slow smile.
"Well, I'll be hanged! The youngster! Good Lord! What have they done!
Who elongated you? Where are the knee dresses and the corkscrews?"
She withdrew a highly haughty hand.
"You poor, misguided Rip Van Winkle. When did you return from the
Catskills?"
"When did it happen?" he asked Lilly, trying to keep his eyes from crinkling.