“You’ve probably wondered why I grabbed you as I did and asked you to sit at meat with me?”
“Why, I hope you asked me because you liked me!” Grace answered.
“That’s the correct answer, Grace—may I call you Grace? I hate having a lot of people around; I like to concentrate on one person, and when I met you in the church entry it just popped into my head that you wouldn’t mind a bit giving me an evening. It’s awfully tiresome going to dinners where the people are all my own age. I’ve always hated formal entertaining. You struck me as a very fair representative of the new generation that appeals to me so much. Don’t look so startled; I mean that, my dear, as a compliment! And of course I really don’t know a thing about you except that you have very pretty manners and didn’t get vexed that day in the store when I must have frightened you out of your wits.”
“But you didn’t,” Grace protested. “I liked your way of saying exactly what you wanted.”
“I always try to do that; it saves a lot of bother. And please don’t be offended if I say that it’s a joy to see you sitting right there looking so charming. You have charming ways; of course you know that. And the effect is much enhanced when you blush that way!”
Grace was very charming indeed as she smiled at her singular hostess, who had a distinct charm of her own. She felt that she could say anything to Miss Reynolds and with girlish enthusiasm she promptly told her that she was adorable.
“I’ve been called a crank by experts,” Miss Reynolds said challengingly, as though she were daring her guest to refute the statement. “I get along better with foreigners than with my own people. Over there they attribute my idiosyncrasies to American crudeness, to be tolerated only because they think me much better off in worldly goods than I really am.”
They remained at the table for coffee, and the waitress who had served the dinner offered cigarettes. Grace shook her head and experienced a mild shock when Miss Reynolds took a cigarette and lighted it with the greatest unconcern.
“Abominable habit! Got in the way of it while I was abroad. Please don’t let me corrupt you!”
“I suppose I’ll learn in time,” Grace replied, amused as she remembered the stress her mother and Ethel had laid on Miss Reynolds’ conservatism.