“Why not? I want you. Please don’t say no.”
So up they went, with the perturbed parlor maid speaking through the tube to the pantry. “Miss Towne wants luncheon for two, Mr. Waldron. In her room. Something nice, she says, and plenty of it.”
Little Lucy had never seen such a room as the one to which Edith led her. The whole house was, indeed, a dream palace. Yet it was the atmosphere with which her lover would soon surround her. She had a feeling almost of panic. What would she do with a maid like Alice, who was helping Josephine set up the folding-table, spread the snowy cloth, bring in the hot silver dishes?
As if Edith divined her thought, she said when the maids had left, “Lucy, will you let me advise?”
“Of course, Miss Towne.”
“Don’t try to be—like the rest of us. Like Del’s own crowd, I mean. He fell in love with you because you were different. He will want you to stay—different.”
“But I shall have so much to learn.”
Edith was impatient. “What must you learn? Externals? Let them alone. Be yourself. You have dignity—and strength. It was the strength in you that won Del. You and he can have a life together that will mean a great deal, if you will make him go your way. But you must not go his——”
Lucy considered that. “You mean that the crowd he is with weakens him?”
“I mean just that. They’re sophisticated beyond words. You’re what they would call—provincial. Oh, be provincial, Lucy. Don’t be afraid. But don’t adopt their ways. You go to church, don’t you? Say your prayers? Believe that God’s in His world?”