Lulu spoke first. "I thought I was going to keep my wings as long as I
lived. I always thought of them as something wonderful, left over from a
happier time. I put them away, done up in silk. And at first I used to
look at them every day. But I was always sad afterwards - and - and
gradually, I stopped doing it. Honey hates to come home and find me sad.
Months went by - I only looked at them occasionally. And after a while,
I did not look at them at all. Then, one day, after Honey built the
fireplace for me, I saw that we needed something - to - to - to sweep
the hearth with. I tried all kinds of things, but nothing was right.
Then, suddenly, I remembered my wings. It had been two years since I'd
looked at them. And after that long time, I found that I didn't care so
much. And so - and so - one day I got them out and cut them into little
brooms for the hearth. Honey never said anything about it - but I knew
he knew. Somehow - ." A strange expression came into the face of the
unanalytic Lulu. "I always have a feeling that Honey enjoys using my
wings about the hearth."
Julia hesitated. "What did you do, Chiquita?"
"Oh, I had all Lulu's feeling at first, of course. But it died as hers
did. You see this fan. You have often commented on how well I've kept it
all these years - I've mended it from month to month with feathers from
my own wings. The color is becoming to me - and Frank likes me to carry
a fan. He says that it makes him think of a country called Spain that he
always wanted to visit when he was a youth."
"And you, Clara?" Julia asked gently.
"Oh, I went through," Clara replied, "just what Lulu and Chiquita did.
Then, one day, I said to myself, 'What's the use of weeping over a, dead
thing?' I made my wings into wall-decorations. You're right about Honey,
Lulu." For a moment there was a shade of conscious coquetry in Clara's
voice. "I know that it gives Pete a feeling of satisfaction - I don't
exactly know why (unless it's a sense of having conquered) - to see my
wings tacked up on his bedroom walls."
Peachy did not wait for Julia to put the question to her. "As soon as I
could move, after they freed us from the Clubhouse, I threw mine into
the sea. I knew I should go mad if I kept them where I could see them
every day. Just to look at them was like a sharp knife going through my
heart. One night, while Ralph was asleep, I crawled out of the house on
my hands and knees, dragging them after me. I crept down to the beach
and threw them into the water. They did not sink - they floated. I
stayed until they drifted out of sight. The moon was up. It shone on
them. Oh, the glorious blue of them - and the glitter - the - the - ."
But Peachy could not go on.