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By Root 10388 0

and asked her how she was, simultaneous actions performed with the feeling that he knew the book of etiquette by heart, and the determination that he was going to carry the evening off. Mrs. Scanlan shook hands with him. He saw that she had changed, and it made him feel a little bit sorry. She was gray, and much stouter, and she didn’t seem to have any pep. When she commented on how pleased she was to see him, and on what a fine young man he had grown up to be, it seemed almost as if it was only a tired voice without any body behind it. She sat down. He sat down after her. She asked if his mother and dad were well, and he said they were. It was hard trying to talk to her. But all girls were the same, didn’t care how long they made a guy wait. Thought it was their privilege. Fran and even Loretta were that way. It was hard to think of anything to say to Mrs. Scanlan. He hoped Lucy would hurry up.

“Lord have mercy on me, I suppose I wouldn’t even recognize the old place, if I was to go back there now. Five years is a long time, the way the world does change nowadays,” Mrs. Scanlan droned monotonously.

“It hasn’t changed so awfully much. Some of the old people, like the O’Briens, have moved away, but many of them are still in the parish.”

“Have the Shires sold their house yet?”

“No.”

“Ah, they were fine people, even if they were on the other side of the fence. What I always said to my girls, and what I still say, is that if many Catholics lived as upright lives as the Shires family did, they would need have no fear of meeting their Maker on the Day of Judgment. That oldest girl, Helen, she was a hit of a wild one, but a fine, decent girl. I suppose now she’s settled down.”

“Yes, she’s working downtown,” Studs said.

“My Helen was saying she saw the O’Brien boy downtown, and he was saying the niggers were getting in there. Isn’t it a shame?”

“There’s some on Wabash Avenue. That’s why my father sold his building, and got one on Michigan. But they won’t get any farther. Father thinks property values will go up and the property will be worth a lot more after Father Gilhooley builds the new Church.”

“You know, William, I never felt the same about any place I’ve lived in as I did about our home on Indiana. I wouldn’t have sold it only for the girls. That neighborhood, there, it was just like home. I lived in it for over twenty years, and raised my family and buried my husband from it. But after he died, I did feel kind of sad like he was always coming back, and I felt it was bad luck to stay living in a house when one of yours has died in it. I’ve always heard that said.”

Studs smoothed his hair back. He wanted to look groomed when Lucy walked in.

“Your sister, Loretta, the one that always played with my Helen, she must be a grown girl now, too. I can remember when they were just tots together, and my Helen had such long red curls. I used to braid her hair every morning. But you know, my Helen, she had scarlet fever, and they had to cut off every inch of that lovely hair, and it’s never grown back like it used to be. It’s bobbed now. Loretta, she must be the young lady, and the youngest boy—what was his name? he must be a big strapping lad too. My, my, how time flies.”

“Martin, you mean, he’s a little bit taller than I am,” Studs said.

“Well, life is strange... but here’s my Lucy now.”

“Well, well, so we meet again. How are you, Studs?”

Studs arose and smiled sheepishly as he shook hands with her. His old feelings arose so strongly that he saw her as through a mist. No use kidding himself, his feelings hadn’t changed a bit. He’d always like Lucy.

“You haven’t changed a bit,” she said, standing before him, with a self-possession that dismayed him and aroused envy.

“You have. You look even sweller than you used to,” he gulped.

“I’m wrong. You have changed. You’ve picked up the blarney,” she said, smiling and pointing a finger at him in the old teasing manner.

He was only gradually able to see the attractive, sweetly plump young woman before him. He perceived the same devilishness in her eyes. He noticed how her lips