human
Is Mrs. Crothers at home? she asked. The maid was not sure. Ethel gave her a card and was shown into a long cosy room with an old-fashioned air, where a small coal fire looked half asleep. She began to look around her. The walls were lined with book-shelves, with only a picture here and there. No wall-paper.
gpt
How funny. She frowned and added,
human
But it's nice. There was but little furniture, and plenty of room to move about.
gpt
What a love of a mirror. It was of gilt, and it reached from floor to ceiling between the two front windows. Gravely she looked at herself in the glass.
human
Oh, I'm not very excited.
gpt
Mrs. Crothers asks you to excuse her. She's sick with a headache this afternoon.
human
Oh, what a lie! thought Ethel. She stood for a moment irresolute, her heart in her mouth.
gpt
I will, though! she decided, and took out another card.
human
Then take her this little note, she said. And she wrote:
gpt
I know I am being quite rude--but if the headache is not too severe will you see me just for a little while! I would not bother you--honestly--but it is something so important--and it must be settled today. It took two of her cards, and even then it was horribly crowded and hard to read.
human
Never mind, she thought.
gpt
That's as far as I'll go. If she can't read that I'm done for!
human
Now I've done it, I've gone too far. I'm done for--oh, I'm done for! Well, look about you, Ethel, my love--it's the last look you'll ever get at this room! How dear it is, what taste, what a home. Books, pictures, a piano of course--and the very air is full of the things that have been said here after dinner, over coffee and cigarettes, by all the people you want to know. Not rich nor 'smart' like Newport--just people with minds and hearts alive to the big things that really count, the beautiful things! . . . Good-bye, my dears--you're not very kind.
gpt
She'll be down in a moment,
human
Thank you! Ethel had wheeled with a start; and again left alone, she stood without moving.
gpt
Well, here you are--you've got your chance! And how do you feel? Plain panicky! Never mind, that's just what will catch her attention! Be panicky! Oh, I am--I am! And her courage oozed so rapidly that when her hostess came into the room, and with a smile that was rather strained, said
human
I am so glad to see you-- the girl who confronted her only stared, and suddenly shivered a little. Then she forced a smile and said,
gpt
How silly of me to shiver like that.
human
Come here by the fire and sit down. Mrs. Crothers' voice was suddenly kind.
gpt
Now tell me how I can help you,
human
Thank you. Why, it's simply this. I've had trouble with Joe, my husband--just lately--in the last few days. And the trouble is so serious that--it's my whole life--one way or the other. At least it--certainly feels so! And I have no women friends I can go to. They're all his--hers, I mean.
gpt
Hers!
human
Yes. My sister's. She is dead--but very much alive at times--through the friends she left behind her. I've been fighting them all my life, it seems--ever since I married Joe!
gpt
Why were you fighting them?
human
Because they--well, they were all just fat--in body and soul--the women, I mean--and the men were just making money for food and things to keep them so. Do you know what I mean--that kind of New Yorker?
gpt
I do, said Mrs. Crothers.
human
Was that the cause of your trouble with Joe!
gpt
Partly--yes. You see when I tried to shake them off, they wouldn't be shaken--they hung on--because Joe was growing rich all of a sudden. Oh, I got pretty desperate! But then I learned of other friends that Joe had had here long ago--before he married _her_, you know. And I hunted for them--one by one. I could feel they were just what he needed, you see. I mean that back among such friends I hoped he'd stop just making money and get to work--on things he had dreamed of! You understand?
human
I think so--but not fully. Go on in your own way, my dear. Don't try to think. Keep talking.
gpt
Thank you. I was in love with him. There was nobody else, man, woman or child--except Susette. She was Amy's little girl. You see, Mrs. Crothers, when Amy died I was there--I had just come to town. So I stayed with Joe to look after Susette. Then later on I began to feel that he was beginning to care for me. And I didn't like that--on Amy's account, for I worshipped her then. So I broke away and took a job. . . . Oh, what in the world am I getting at!
human
Don't try to think. Just tell me. You took a job. What was it?