They dropped Irene at Minnie’s and then swung westward. Grace indicated a point a block from home where they might leave her.
“If you like The Shack I hope you’ll come again,” said Kemp. “It’s been fine to have you along.”
“We’ll meet again,” said Trenton. “We didn’t settle much! There’ll have to be some more talks—many of them I hope!”
“I hope so too! Thank you both ever so much.”
When she reached the Durland gate she caught a last glimpse of the tail light as the car swung southward round the park.
CHAPTER FIVE
I
She turned off the hall light at the switch at the head of the stairs and gained her room unchallenged. Usually her mother waited up for her, and Grace breathed a sigh of relief to find her door closed. She quickly undressed, hiding the new suit in the closet and throwing out another to wear to work in the morning.
She lay for nearly an hour thinking over the events of the night but slept at last the sleep of weary youth and was only roused by the importunate alarm clock at six thirty. On her way to the bathroom for a shower—the shower had been a concession to her and Roy—she passed Ethel whose good morning she thought a little constrained. As she dressed she rehearsed the story she meant to tell to account for her late home-coming. Something would be said about it and she went downstairs whistling to fortify herself for the ordeal. Her father was reading the morning paper by the window in the living room and in response to her inquiry as to whether there was any news muttered absently that there was nothing in particular, the remark he always made when interrupted in the reading of his paper.
She found her mother and sister in the kitchen.