“Doris thinks that she hasn’t slept a wink, Mother. She probably has, for I thought I hadn’t slept and found that I had been asleep two hours. Doris says that they were very kind but she seems all tired out and I just helped her off with her clothes so that she could really go to bed. Don’t you worry. If she wakes up and wants something to eat in the night, I’ll get it for her!”
Mrs. Lee gave Betty an amused look and said, “Good child. I think you may have to give Doris a little more of your time, Betty.”
“I’ve just been wondering about that myself, Mother. I’m sorry.”
Little by little Doris told Betty about her visit. There had been a very pleasant party on Friday to which Doris had gone directly from home. Then came the evening with Stacia’s family, all kind and pleasant, Doris said, but “different.” Stacia’s mother and big sisters smoked cigarettes and Stacia “smoked some” before they went to bed and “didn’t put up the window; said it was too cold.”
“If you think Stacia paints, you ought to see her sisters, and her mother, too. They are all what Stacia calls modern, you know. I liked it at first and they are good folks, Betty—at least Stacia’s mother and father are. I don’t know about her sisters, or her brother.
“Well, the radio went all evening and we had to yell to talk above it. I was too polite at first to talk at all, but I had to. It kept on going for the late programs and with that and the smoke in the whole house and no window up, I couldn’t sleep a mite.
“I felt better in the morning and we went down town to do Christmas shopping. Stacia showed me a lovely shop and I got something nice for Mother. You mustn’t look in your bag, yet, though, for there’s something there for you, too. We had a grand lunch, and then, in the afternoon, Stacia had a little party for me. That is why I can never say a word about all this. They were so good to me! I’m going to give Stacia something nice for Christmas—wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, I would,” gently said Betty.
“That night at supper, dinner, I mean, they had wine, I’m sure. They did not say what it was, but it was in a wine glass and I tasted it and it was terribly bitter. I don’t see how anybody likes the stuff. Jim—that’s Stacia’s brother and such a handsome, dear sort of boy, about eighteen, I imagine—Jim drank a lot of it, till his father said real low, ‘That’s enough, Jim.’
“Then they took me to a moving picture, not down town, but in the suburb, you know. And we stayed up awfully late with the radio again and this time some more wine, only I didn’t take any, only cake. Stacia urged me to try one of her sister’s cigarettes. I believe they don’t want Stacia to smoke yet, so she didn’t do it until we went upstairs. It made me cough just to smell all the smoke, so I said ‘no, thank you, Stacia,’ and got undressed. And then—” Doris lowered her voice—“about two o’clock, I think, somebody came stumbling up the stairs, and somebody was talking to him, and helping him, I think. Stacia woke up and sat up in bed. We could see a little, for there was a light in the hall. She saw I was awake and I sat up, too.