K. turned the automobile toward the country roads. He was remembering
acutely that other ride after Joe in his small car, the trouble he had had
to get a machine, the fear of he knew not what ahead, and his arrival at
last at the road-house, to find Max lying at the head of the stairs and
Carlotta on her knees beside him.
"K." "Yes?"
"Was there anybody you cared about,--any girl,--when you left home?"
"I was not in love with anyone, if that's what you mean."
"You knew Max before, didn't you?"
"Yes. You know that."
"If you knew things about him that I should have known, why didn't you tell
me?"
"I couldn't do that, could I? Anyhow--"
"Yes?"
"I thought everything would be all right. It seemed to me that the mere
fact of your caring for him--" That was shaky ground; he got off it
quickly. "Schwitter has closed up. Do you want to stop there?"
"Not to-night, please."
They were near the white house now. Schwitter's had closed up, indeed.
The sign over the entrance was gone. The lanterns had been taken down, and
in the dusk they could see Tillie rocking her baby on the porch. As if to
cover the last traces of his late infamy, Schwitter himself was watering
the worn places on the lawn with the garden can.
The car went by. Above the low hum of the engine they could hear Tillie's
voice, flat and unmusical, but filled with the harmonies of love as she
sang to the child.
When they had left the house far behind, K. was suddenly aware that Sidney
was crying. She sat with her head turned away, using her handkerchief
stealthily. He drew the car up beside the road, and in a masterful fashion
turned her shoulders about until she faced him.
"Now, tell me about it," he said.
"It's just silliness. I'm--I'm a little bit lonely."
"Lonely!"
"Aunt Harriet's in Paris, and with Joe gone and everybody--"
"Aunt Harriet!"
He was properly dazed, for sure. If she had said she was lonely because the
cherry bookcase was in Paris, he could not have been more bewildered. And
Joe! "And with you going away and never coming back--"
"I'll come back, of course. How's this? I'll promise to come back when
you graduate, and send you flowers."
"I think," said Sidney, "that I'll become an army nurse."