"Tell me about Flora. Is she really ill? If she is, I'll come. But I'd rather not.
"I hope you won't read this aloud to Oscar. You might, you know, and it wouldn't do. He would hate to believe that he'd be happier buying things at a delicatessen, and he wouldn't believe it. But
it's true, just as it is true that you would be happy shining boots and making love to the maids like a character in Dickens.
"Come on up, and we'll motor to Boston on Sunday afternoon and we'll go to Trinity; I want somebody to be good with me, Georgie, and there are so many of the other kind.
"Ever wistfully,
"Madge."
George knew that he ought to go, but he was not ready yet to run away. He was having the time of his life, and as for Becky, he would teach her how to play the game.
IV
Aunt Claudia was away for three weeks.
"I wish she would come home," young Paine said one morning to his mother.
"Why?" Caroline Paine was at her desk with her mind on the dinner. "Why, Randy?"