"Suppose we all go out and leave Winnie alone with her parents for a few minutes," Mrs. Farley suggested, her voice quavering slightly. She puckered her lips and frowned, smiling about her at the group. When she stood up her gray taffeta dress settled slowly, with a calm sound, in folds about her. The hem lay out on the carpet. She had a scrap of yellow lace at her neck and above it in her withered loose skin you could see the flutter of a pulse. "We certainly should," Alice said. "Why, that's very nice. I don't----" Mrs. Price looked around, uncertain, well-bred. "Yes, yes. Come, May." Mrs. Farley took May's small cold hand, moist in her dry one. Alice went first and Mr. Farley shuffled after the others, head bent, smiling, not sure why they were going out. Mrs. Price had risen with her husband and stood, sad and calm, watching them leave. Life had wrung her, but she had grown sure in compromise. There was dignity in her sureness. "Well," said Mr. Price shortly, "I don't see that husband of yours about!" Winnie started tremulously. She smiled at him with a relaxed mouth. "Papa, dear, I know----" She gulped, still smiling. "Yes, I know. I know. I suppose he's run away from us." "He'll probably be in later, won't he, dear?" Mrs. Price's transparent smile was a thin shield guarding Winnie from her father. Winnie tried to speak. Then she gave way and flung her white arms about her mother's throat. "Oh, M-mother!" "There, there. I know." "Confound him!" said Mr. Price very savagely, biting his mustache. "Please, Perry!" "Oh, that's all right. That's all right. I'm not going to lose my temper." "Don't cry, Winnie. Sweet Winnie." "What I want to know is whether that--whether he refused to meet us or not?" Mr. Price asked. "Oh, Mother--Papa--I----" "Don't cry, Winnie. It's all right. Your father has resolved to overlook things and if he can bring himself to do that about what has already happened this last little rudeness certainly won't matter." "But he said he--he would come." "He did, eh? And then went out." "Now, Perry--please?" Replying to his wife's pale smile, Mr. Price coughed ambiguously. "You need never be afraid of your father conducting himself in anything but a generous manner, Winnie. I wish you might have been at church last Sunday when he presented the new organ!" "I know, but----" "That's all very well, dear." Mrs. Price's voice had a disappearing quality. It floated and drifted from her lips and her words died away from her like the shed petals of a flower. "I want--I want you and Papa to let me be happy! I--I----Sometimes I think nobody's happy. Mamma and Papa Farley are not. I----" Above Winnie's bowed head Mr. and Mrs. Price exchanged glances. "They don't deserve to be!" Mr. Price snorted after a minute. Winnie glanced up. Mrs. Price's face twitched with worry.