"She wouldn't come, of course, not being recognized as one of the family and yet counting herself one."
"But, explain ... how could she? I thought that was broken off long ago."
"When mother was first taken," Effie agreed, "but you see she made such a dead set at him, she had to keep it up somehow; she couldn't admit that Forrie hadn't wanted her. So they made it up between them, Lily and her mother, I mean, that she and Forrie had really been engaged, but it had been broken off because Forrie couldn't marry so long as mother——" She broke off with tears again, remembering how mother was now.
"That was two years ago; you don't mean to say they've kept it up all the time?"
"They've had to. You see Lily hadn't been careful about not getting herself talked about with Forester. Oh, not scandal, of course, but you know how it is when a girl is crazy after a man; everybody gets to hear of it. And then they had to make so much of the engagement never coming to anything on mother's account, it quite spoiled Lily's chances, and you know, Forester...."
"Oh, he was taken in by it, no doubt; it was something to sentimentalize over and be self-sacrificing about."
"Well, of course, he couldn't quite abandon the poor girl; and she really is fond of him."
"And perfectly safe to philander with. Well, now that he has no one depending on him I suppose he will marry her!"
"That's what is worrying me," protested Effie; "you see it all depends on whether I go on depending on him." She broke down over that. Mother hadn't wanted Forester to marry Lily Jastrow, and everybody by the mouth of Almira Jewett, had thought it was Effie's duty to keep him from it if she could.
"And I could, by just staying on. It's mother's money in the business, your's and mine as much as his, and this house ... it's partly ours ... if we stay in it."