Miss Dorset sighed as she refilled the tea cups. The alternatives were so clear. Mrs. Greene could either relax her grip on life and slide into a state of comfortable coma, with no ups and down, no painful efforts and no particular alleviations, or she could live on for a few years paying a heavy toll for her good moments in hours of depression and physical malaise. There was no choice; the first was temperamentally impossible. Miss Dorset sighed again, and then resolutely set herself to join in the conversation. Mrs. Greene's expression was so deliberately blank as to be provocative. "Yes," she was saying, "Jessica and Hugh get home on Tuesday, but I shan't be seeing them till the party on Friday, I expect." "What party do you mean?" asked Mrs. Hugh innocently. "Oh, you haven't had your invitation yet?" Mrs. Greene replied with feigned surprise. "Well, it's a little dinner Edith is giving for the six Mrs. Greenes. It will be so nice to have a reunion that we can all enjoy." Mrs. Hugh looked aghast. "I never heard you say anything so fantastic in all your life," she said decisively. "You may have something in common with your daughters-in-law, but I certainly have not. I never agree with Edith, and I disapprove of Dora." "I knew you would say that," said Mrs. Greene triumphantly. "You've got some sense, Sarah. It's a shocking plan, but when Edith gets an idea into her head you know very well nothing will get it out again." "Do you mean to say you're taking the trouble to go up to town just to fall in with a whim of Edith's?" Mrs. Greene looked a little helpless, and Miss Dorset interposed quickly. "Mr. Rodney is coming in the car to fetch Mrs. Greene. He is very anxious to have her up in town again, even if it's only for a night." Mrs. Hugh's rather stern face softened. "Rodney is a good boy," she said. "You know, Margaret, the last time I saw him it struck me that he was looking very like Geoffrey did at that age." "Do you think so?" asked Mrs. Greene eagerly. "I sometimes see it, and then sometimes I can't see it, but I think Hugh is very like his grandfather." "Not nearly so good-looking. Geoffrey was very good-looking, Margaret; he had a fine scholarly head." "Hugh was handsome, too, Sarah. We were two fine couples in the old days. Lavinia is like what I used to be." "Yes, I think she is," agreed Mrs. Hugh. "And Martin is a nice little boy, and very sensibly brought up. Tell me, Margaret," she asked suddenly, "does it make you feel different to be a great-grandmother? You're at the head of such a long line and I'm so isolated in a way." She broke off, and then added before Mrs. Greene had time to answer. "Not that I'm not fond of Rodney and my own nephew Roger. Only not having children and children's children makes me feel a little stranded sometimes now that my own generation has ebbed away and left me high and dry." Mrs. Greene looked at her intently.