“Well, as I’ve said before, Irene isn’t as bad as you paint her. You probably wouldn’t think she’d waste time on John, but they get on famously.”
“John isn’t quite what I thought he was,” said Ethel, ignoring her mother’s signal for silence.
“That’s because he wouldn’t let you choose a church for him,” said Grace, gingerly drawing a pan of corn muffins from the oven. “John lives his religion, which is a lot better than parading it all the time.”
“Now, Grace, Ethel didn’t mean to reflect on John,” Mrs. Durland hastened to explain.
“It may give you a better impression of John to know he’s been very kind to Roy,” said Grace.
“How’s that, Grace?” asked Mrs. Durland quickly. “I didn’t get a chance to ask John about Roy.”
“John wouldn’t have told you he’d been helping Roy even if you’d asked him. John doesn’t advertise his good works. But I had a letter from one of the girls the other day and she was teasing me about John. She said he must be seriously interested in me for he’d been coaching Roy in his law work. I call it perfectly splendid of John when he has so much to do.”
“It’s certainly kind of John,” said her mother, “I wish you’d told me so I could have thanked him. But I didn’t suppose Roy needed coaching. He’s working very hard; he’s sent just scraps of letters all winter and gives as his excuse that he’s too busy to write.”
“We’ve all got to begin thinking about what Roy will do after he’s graduated,” said Ethel. “I’ve talked to some of the lawyers who come into our office and they all say he’d better go into an office as clerk until he gets started. A young man can’t just hang out his shingle and expect business to come to him.”
“It’s too bad your father isn’t in a position to help Roy,” sighed Mrs. Durland.