"No, papa."
"Very well. Now we know where we are. If anyone hears this report repeated, send them to me."
"Well, but that satchel—" said Ina, to whom an idea manifested less as a function than as a leech.
"One moment," said Dwight. "Lulu will of course verify what the child has said."
There had never been an adult moment until that day when Lulu had not instinctively taken the part of the parents, of all parents. Now she saw Dwight's cruelty to her as his cruelty to Di; she saw Ina, herself a child in maternity, as ignorant of how to deal with the moment as was Dwight. She saw Di's falseness partly parented by these parents. She burned at the enormity of Dwight's appeal to her for verification. She threw up her head and no one had ever seen Lulu look like this.
"If you cannot settle this with Di," said Lulu, "you cannot settle it with me."
"A shifty answer," said Dwight. "You have a genius at misrepresenting facts, you know, Lulu."
"Bobby wanted to say something," said Ina, still troubled.
"No, Mrs. Deacon," said Bobby, low. "I have nothing—more to say."
In a little while, when Bobby went away, Di walked with him to the gate. It was as if, the worst having happened to her, she dared everything now.