“Except Cecily.”
“Cecily has it and the fact that she stands out sometimes as almost prudish shows what we are coming to.”
Her sons had brought Mrs. Warner almost to the point of developing and acknowledging a philosophy. Not quite. She, like her daughter, was still somewhat negative.
“Well, shall we give Walter that extra hundred?” asked her husband.
“He hasn’t said why he needs it. What do you suppose he does with it? Gambling or some woman?”
“I don’t think so. You might talk to him, dear. As far as I can make out it’s just that girls and clothes are expensive. It costs an appalling amount to take a girl to a Prom.”
“Any special girl?”
“I think he likes a girl in Philadelphia.”
But when Walter came for Christmas a few weeks later and they sounded him about the girl from Philadelphia he looked astonished.
“Oh, her—no, I haven’t seen her lately. Good reason, too, hey, Gerald?”