and white, refused him awkwardly. She was almost indignant. She did not speak of it, but the hotel, somehow, knew. Hyde Park knew. The thing leaked out.

“But why?” said Marcia, smiling — giggling, almost. “Why? I think it would have been wonderful for you, Mother!”

Hannah suddenly felt that she need not degrade herself to explain why — she who had once triumphed over her own ordeal of marriage.

Marcia herself was planning a new career. The children were seven and nine — very nearly eight and ten. Marcia said she wanted a chance at self-expression. She announced a course in landscape gardening — ”landscape architecture” was the new term.

“Chicago’s full of people who are moving to the suburbs and buying big places out north. They don’t