Letty was quiet. Catherine felt the child's body stiffen a little from its kittenlike relaxation, as if her inner conflict was purely muscular, not thought at all. That's the way children must think, she speculated. With a giggle Letty slid down from the bed, hugged her arms about the pile of scarlet garments, and marched to the closet. "I screwed a hook into the door, low down," Miss Kelly explained. "Usually Letty doesn't have to be told." "And you don't allow her to beguile you, do you?" Catherine laughed at the self-righteousness in Letty's strut back to the bed. "You can't," said Miss Kelly, "or they run all over you." "What runs over you?" demanded Marian. "Mice!" Letty's shriek was almost in Catherine's ear, as she plumped down in her mother's lap. "Mice!" and she wiggled in laughter. "Free blind mice." "Isn't she silly!" But Marian giggled, too. "Who's that?" The hall door sounded on its hinges. "Daddy!" Her rush halted at the door. "Oh, I thought you were my Daddy!" "Did you, now?" Mrs. O'Lay's red face hung a moment at the door, a genial full moon. "Well, I ain't. But you'd best be glad I ain't, for it's little dinner he'd be getting for you." Marian stuck a pink triangle of tongue after her as she disappeared, clumping down the hall. "She's awful fat, isn't she, Muvver?" She scuffled her feet slowly to the edge of the bed. "An' she has a funny smell. I don't know what she smells of, but she does." "Ashes and floor oil," said Catherine. She hadn't noticed it, consciously. She caught Miss Kelly's surprised, disapproving glance. "We'll have to lengthen that dress, Marian," she concealed her amusement, and her free hand pulled at the edge of the chambray dress. "Can't pull it over your knees, can we?" "I have let out the tucks in four dresses," said Miss Kelly. This was ground she knew. "But Marian is growing very fast." Catherine's arm went around Marian's waist, and pulled her down at her side. "Short dresses are the style, aren't they?" She hugged them both, Letty against her breast, Marian against her shoulder. Firm, warm, slim things, her daughters, growing very fast. "What are you folks doing?" Spencer stood in the doorway, his eyes mournful. "I'm all alone." "You've got your ole radium," declared Marian promptly, "and you're not sick any longer, even if I can see that cut, and our Muvver can stay with us now." "Us now!" chanted Letty. "Oh, you've sorted the laundry, Mrs. Hammond?" Miss Kelly turned from the opened drawer. "Yes. I left a pile of clothes on a chair in Spencer's room--they need buttons." "I thought I'd just lay out clean underwear for morning. Perhaps that shirt is with the pile." She went past Spencer, who drew aside with a touch of petulance. "Suppose we all go into the living room." Catherine brushed Letty and Marian to their feet. "Daddy will be here soon, and we'll all have dinner together for the first time. Yes, Letty, too. It's a special occasion. Spencer's first full-dress day."