Catherine cut in sweetly: “Such as bouquets of orchids for Miss Doris Kane!”
“Orchids!” Alice almost screamed the word. “Tom, you don’t mean for a minute to tell me you’re sending orchids to a girl! High School children sending orchids! I never in my life heard of anything so wickedly absurd!”
“Well, gosh, Mums, what are you going to do? That’s what all the girls want now for the dances, and a fellow can’t look like a piker! I’ve got to order some for to-night. Lend me five, won’t you, just to run me over? What we ought to have is a charge account at the florist’s. That’s what all the other fellows’ folks have.”
“No doubt,” Alice said sarcastically. “It’s barely possible that some of your friends’ fathers may have more money to pay their bills than your father has. But I suppose you never thought of that! Well, I’ll give you five this time, but I don’t want you ever to ask me again for such a purpose.”
“And now if he’s through,” Catherine broke in, “what about me? Is there any reason why I should be broke while my handsome young brother sends orchids to Doris Kane? You should see what the girls are giving each other for Christmas. It makes me sick to hand out the things I have. They look like a rummage sale compared with the rest! I did want one decent thing for Jean, but I’m terribly short.”
She looked at her mother challengingly.
Alice made a desperate gesture with her hands. “All right,” she said, “you can have it. Of course it doesn’t matter whether I’m short or not! I’m at the place where I don’t care much what happens!”
Her head throbbed miserably as she borrowed the two five-dollar bills from her housekeeping purse and gave them to the children. She had a vivid perception that each thought they should have been tens. Their thanks were scant and careless. They had only received their just due, and scarcely that!
Alice felt sick as she climbed the stairs to the den where she kept her desk. Now for the cards. Christmas was a hard, trying time. She would be glad when it was over.
She began in frantic haste, selecting, addressing, searching her note book and the telephone directory for streets and numbers. Five, ten, fifteen finished, stamped, ready.