“Such as what? Tell me just what you’ve heard,” said Grace, sharply.
“Well, if you insist,” replied Ethel, with affected reluctance, “she’s keeping company with a married man. It’s been going on for some time. They were seen together last Sunday night, quite late, driving into town. Suppose you ask Irene where she was last Sunday.”
“What’s the man’s name?” Grace demanded.
“Oh, I needn’t mention his name! You ask Irene to tell you. A girl friend of mine who used to work in his office saw them.”
“I don’t believe a word of it,” said Grace. “You or I or any other girl might be seen driving with a married man without there being anything wicked about it.”
“Well, you asked me and I told you,” returned Ethel complacently. “It’s not a new story. I knew it when I tried to persuade you not to go into Shipley’s, but I thought I wouldn’t tell you why I thought it best for you to keep away from Irene.”
“Irene has been fine to me,” said Grace quickly; “she’s one of the nicest and one of the most intelligent girls I ever knew. I think it poor business for a girl like you, who pretends to be a Christian, to listen to scandalous stories about some one you hardly know. I’ll say for Irene that I never heard her speak an unkind word of any one. Every day she does a lot of little kindnesses for people and she doesn’t strut around about it either.”
“I don’t question that you believe all that, Grace,” remarked Mrs. Durland as she served the rice pudding that was the regular dessert for Thursday evening. “But you know Ethel is very careful what she says about every one.”
“Yes, I’ve noticed that,” said Grace coldly.
Durland had eaten his pudding and was stolidly slipping his napkin into its ring. The better course might be to follow his example. Silence, Grace reflected, offered the surest refuge from family bickering. She saw the years stretching on endlessly, with her work-day followed by evenings of discord in the cheerless home circle. The prospect was not heartening. It was two against two, and her father was only passively an ally. When Roy came home he would be pretty sure to align himself with his mother and Ethel, in keeping with his general policy of taking the easier and more comfortable way in everything. It flashed through her mind that she might leave home and take a room somewhere or join with two or three girls and rent an apartment. But her parents needed her help. She knew that her father was wholly unlikely to assist materially with the household expenses. Ethel had not demurred when she volunteered to contribute in ratio to her earnings, which made her share at least a third more each week than Ethel’s.