“It’s too bad,” said Linda, “that I have spoiled it for you for billiards. I have also spoiled the outside appearance of the house for Eileen.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said John. “I looked at it carefully the other day as I came up, and I thought your changes enhanced the value of the property.”
“I am surely glad to hear that,” said Linda. “Take a look through my skylight and my new window. Imagine you see the rugs I am going to have and a few more pieces of furniture when I can afford them; and let me particularly point out the fireplace that Henry Anderson and your friend Peter designed and had built for me. Doesn’t it add a soul and a heart to my study?”
John Gilman walked over and looked at the fireplace critically. He read the lines aloud, then he turned to Eileen.
“Why, that is perfectly beautiful,” he said. “Let’s duplicate it in our home.”
“You bungler!” scoffed Eileen.
“I think you’re right,” said Gilman reflectively, “exactly right. Of course I would have no business copying Linda’s special fireplace where the same people would see it frequently; and if I had stopped to think a second, I might have known that you would prefer tiling to field stone.”
“Linda seems very busy to-night,” said Eileen. “Perhaps we are bothering her.”
“Yes,” said John, “we’ll go at once. I had to run up to tell our good news; and I wanted to tell you too, Linda dear, that I think both of us misjudged Eileen the other day. You know, Linda, you have always dressed according to your father’s ideas, which were so much simpler and plainer than the manner in which your mother dressed Eileen, that she merely thought that you wished to continue in his way. She had no objection to your having any kind of clothes you chose, if only you had confided in her, and explained to her what you wanted.”
Linda stood beside her table, one lean hand holding down the letter she had been writing. She stood very still, but she was powerless to raise her eyes to the face of either John or Eileen. Above everything she did not wish to go any further in revealing Eileen to John Gilman. If he knew what he knew and if he felt satisfied, after what he had seen, with any explanation that Eileen could trump up to offer, Linda had no desire to carry the matter further. She had been ashamed of what she already had done. She had felt angry and dissatisfied with herself, so she stood before them downcast and silent.