It seemed almost like an interposition of Providence that two days after Dicky’s bombshell, his mother received a letter from her daughter Elizabeth asking her to go to Florida for the rest of the winter.  One of the children had been ordered south by the family physician, and Dicky’s sister was to accompany her little daughter, while the other children remained at home under the care of their father and his mother.  Mother Graham dearly loves to travel, and I knew from Lillian’s reports and the few glimpses I had of my mother-in-law that she was delighted with the prospect before her.

How Lillian managed to quiet the elder woman’s natural worry about Dicky, her half-formed suspicion that something was wrong, and her conviction that without her to look after me I should not be able to get through the winter, I never knew.

I do not remember seeing my mother-in-law but once or twice in the interval between the receipt of Dicky’s letter and her departure.  The memory of her good-by to me, however, is very distinct.

She came into the room, cloaked and hatted, ready for the taxi which was to take her to the station.  Katie was to go into New York with her, and see her safely on the train.  Her face was pale, and I noticed listlessly that her eyelids were reddened as if she had been weeping.  She bent and kissed me tenderly, and then she put her arms around me, and held me tightly.

“I don’t know what it is all about, dear child,” she said.  “I hope all is as it seems outwardly.  But remember, Margaret, I am your friend, whatever happens, and if it will help you any, you may remember that I, too, have had to walk this same sharp paved way.”

Then she went away.  I remembered that she had said something of the kind once before, giving me to understand that Dicky’s father had caused her much unhappiness.  Did she believe too, I wondered, that Dicky was with Grace Draper, that his brief infatuation for the girl had returned when he had seen her again?

For days after that, I drifted—­there is no other word for it—­through the hours of each day.  When it was absolutely necessary for Lillian to know some detail, which I alone could give her, she would come to me, rouse me, and holding me to the subject by the sheer force of her will, obtain the information she wished, and then leave me to myself, or rather to Katie again.  Katie was my devoted slave.  She waited on me hand and foot, and made a most admirable nurse when Lillian was compelled to be absent.

When I thought about the matter at all, I realized that Lillian was preparing to have me share her apartment in the city when I should be strong enough to leave my home.  Harry Underwood had gone with my father to South America for a trip which would take many months, so I made no protest.  I knew also, because of questions she had made me answer, that she had arranged with the Lotus Study Club to have an old teaching comrade of mine, a man who had experience in club lectures, take my place until I should be well enough to go back to the work.