“Then you’ll…?”
“I haven’t said,” Lenore answered. “I painted myself into this corner with my own little hand. If Dad isn’t to go to the pen right off, I suppose I’ve got to get engaged, at least, or have an ‘understanding’ with the ape. You’ve got me in a spot where either I do that, or Dad’s jailed.”
“I always knew my daughter….” Netta began rapturously, and rapturously she rose from her chair to bestow an embrace.
Lenore sat perfectly still. “Sit down, Netta,” she said icily. “Let’s have no manure in this.”
“Minerva will want to know!” Mrs. Bailey breathed, discomfited only momentarily.
“You call her and the deal’s off. I’ll tell Kit in my own time and my own way, and the terms won’t be—practicing matrimony from the moment he slips on the diamond either! Sit still, Mother! I swear to God, if you put the needle in anywhere, one more time, I’ll take a job in New York and be damned to you and Dad both!”
Mrs. Bailey was slightly disappointed, but not very. She had always been a main-chance gambler.
X-Day
1
Charles had come home for Christmas. His mother had answered the phone when he called from Texas with the good news. Something wonderful, she had thought, almost always happens around Christmastime.