And so Lily won another victory in her long line of conquests, a victory which she must have known was a real triumph in which to take a profound pride.
Then while Lily took off her hat and set her fine hair in order, her cousin poured out the news of the last few days. It was news of a sort that warmed the heart of Mrs. Tolliver ... news of Julia Shane’s illness delivered gravely with a vast embroidery of detail, a long account of the mulatto woman’s insolence and derelictions which increased as the old woman grew weaker; and, last of all, an eloquent and denunciatory account of Irene’s behavior.
“She behaves,” said Mrs. Tolliver, “as though a daughter had no obligations toward her own mother.” Her face grew scarlet with indignation at this flouting of family ties. “She spends all her time in the Flats among those foreigners and never sees her own mother more than a minute or two a day. There she lies, a sick and dying woman, grieving because her daughter neglects her. You’d think Irene loved the strikers more ... especially one young fellow who is the leader,” she added darkly.
Lily, knowing her mother, must have guessed that Cousin Hattie’s account suffered from a certain emotional exaggeration. The picture of old Julia Shane, grieving because her daughter neglected her, was not a convincing one. The old woman was too self reliant for that sort of behavior. She expected too little from the world.
But Lily said nothing. She unstrapped her bag and brought out a fresh handkerchief and a bottle of scent. Then she raised her lovely head and looked sharply at her cousin. “I suppose it’s this same Krylenko,” she said. “D’you think she’s in love with him?”
“No,” replied Mrs. Tolliver shrewdly, “I don’t think she loves anybody or anything but her own soul. She’s like a machine. She has an idea she loves the strikers but that’s only because she thinks she’s saving her soul by good works. I suppose it makes her happy. Only yesterday I told her, thinking it would be a hint, that charity begins at home.” For a moment Mrs. Tolliver waited thoughtfully, and then she added, “You know, sometimes Irene looks at her mother as if she wanted her to make haste with her dying. I’ve noticed the look—more than once.”
And so they talked for a time, as people always talked of Irene, as if she were a stranger, a curiosity, something which stood outside the realm of human understanding. And out of the ruin of Irene’s character, Hattie Tolliver rose phoenix-like, triumphant, as the heroine who had seen Irene’s duty and taken it upon herself.
“You know, I’m nursing your mother,” she continued. “She wouldn’t have a nurse because she couldn’t bear to have a stranger in the house. She has that one idea now ... seeing no one but the doctor and her own family. Now that you’ve come, I suppose she won’t even see the doctor any more. She’s asleep now, so I came down-stairs to put the house into some sort of order. Heaven knows what it would have been like if the drawing-room had been open too. That mulatto woman,” she added bitterly, “hasn’t touched a thing in weeks.”
Silently, thoughtfully, Lily pushed open the double doors into the drawing-room.
“It’s not been opened since you left,” continued Mrs. Tolliver. “Not even for the Christmas party. But that wasn’t necessary because there aren’t many of us left. You could put all of us into the library. There’s only Eva Barr and Charles and me. The old ones are all dead and the young ones have gone away.” For a moment she paused, for Lily appeared not to be listening. Then she added softly, “But I guess you know all that. I’d forgotten Ellen was living with you.”