“Good night, madame.” Susanne turned at the door. “I hope you sleep, madame.”
Mrs. Meredith looked up sharply in time to catch a glimpse of the French maid’s trim figure in its becoming black gown as Susanne whisked through the hall door, closing it after her. Crossing the boudoir, she entered her daughter’s bedroom. Anne, on the point of switching off the reading lamp, left it lighted as her mother approached the bed.
“Now, Anne,” Mrs. Meredith seated herself on the nearest chair, “we are alone, and you can tell me in detail about this escapade of yours.”
“Escapade?” Anne sat bolt upright. “What a word, mother.”
“Does it not fit the occasion?” smoothly, meeting Anne’s indignant glance with unperturbed equanimity. “You slip away without a word to me, drive for miles in the country, just escape a serious accident, leave your car broken on the roadside, and come home close upon midnight in a farm truck. I might well add the adjective ‘indiscreet’ before escapade.” Anne’s small hands closed spasmodically over the bedclothes as she dragged them closer to her.
“You forget that I was not alone, mother,” with emphasis. “Doctor Curtis, my fiance, was with me.” Mrs. Meredith gazed at her daughter in silence for a minute. “You still persist in carrying out this bargain marriage?” she asked, bitingly.
Anne flushed scarlet. “Kindly recollect, mother, that the bargain was not of my seeking,” she replied. “And you were its strongest advocate.”
Mrs. Meredith’s gaze strayed from Anne to a photograph standing in a silver frame on her dressing table. It was an excellent likeness of her brother-in-law, John Meredith. Mrs. Meredith hastily averted her eyes.
“Have you recovered entirely from your fright, Anne?” she asked more kindly. At the unexpected change of topic Anne relaxed against her pillows. Was it possible that her mother did not care to pursue a conversation which, in her present mood, might lead to an open quarrel?
“I am better, thank you,” she responded. “Doctor Curtis did everything in the world for me. But for his presence of mind when the brakes on the car would not work, I would have been killed.”