Zelda went with him to the door, as she had begun to do on the first morning after her return, and rendered him those little offices that women have ordained as part of the minor ritual of their service of love.
She watched him as he walked rapidly away from the house without looking back. She was already half-ashamed of herself for having demanded money of him; yet there was a cry in her blood for war, for contest, that this little triumph of the breakfast-table did not satisfy; but as she watched him disappear at the corner pity again possessed her heart.
An occupant of one of the new houses over the way came out to go to his appointed labors of the day. His wife and two little children followed him, and the family gathered about a flower bed in the plot of ground by their doorstep and discussed the frost that had blighted their plants. The comments of the children rang out in droll trebles; and they delayed their father with many clutches and embraces as he started away. Zelda watched them with a new pain in her heart. The shouts of the children to their father touched a need of her own, and she turned away into the house with a sob in her throat and tears gathering in her eyes.
CHAPTER VI
THE LOBSTER
“It’s burning, I think,” suggested Zelda.
“You ought to keep stirring,” said Mrs. Forrest.
“It’s usually served hot,” remarked Leighton. “That’s what the books say.”
The successful chafing-dish cook must be a good actor also. If the wicks work badly, he must smile at his audience while his fingers burn; or he must be able to tell an amusing story while the alcohol, which is always spreading in places where it should not be, ignites grandly until the table resembles a prairie fire. When the finished rabbit pulls away from the spoon like taffy, and hardens in long strings in the air, only an operator possessing unusual dramatic powers can turn the tragedy into comedy.
“Your advice is neither asked nor desired,” Rodney Merriam said, in scorn of his critics. “I’ve been under fire before.”
“You seem to be over it just now,” remarked Zelda, who sat nearest him with her elbows on the table.