So that was stopped. One didn't say to Gertrude Whitlock, 'Oh, no, Miss Whitlock, youVe forgotten. There's only an ugly hole in the ground.''
She tried again. 'Innes tells me his father was the original owner of all this land.'
'Certainly,' said Gertrude.
'Papa,' murmured Isabel. 'Let's not speak of him, Alice, please. This is such a ... a nervous day.'
Alice stared.
'My father was killed in an automobile accident,' Gertrude said piously. 'Isabel was with him. It was a terrible experience.'
'I'm so sorry. I didn't know.''
'Well, how do you like the family?' boomed Maud, disconcertingly enough.
Alice smiled, opened her lips to speak, and smiled again.
'We're a bunch of old women,' Maud said. 'Ha ha. When's the doctor coming?'
'He's been,' mouthed Alice.
'What? What did she say?'
Isabel ripped off the brief remark on her fingers.
'Oh, he's been, eh?' Maud looked disappointed. 'Say, Isabel, Innes ought to have some wine.'
'I have the keys,' said Isabel
Maud twisted her lips to dislodge something from a tooth. 'If I had any sense Fd go to the dentist,' she an- noimced rather cheerfully.
Alice finished her meal and fled, excusing herself for nurse's duty. They were fantastic, she thought Disjointed. Scattered. She went into the kitchen to search for some ice.
The kitchen was large and old. The linoleum on the floor had tracks in it, beaten bare. Josephine was washing dishes with her big hands pmk and bright in the suds. She brought them out, dripping, and showed Alice the ice pick. No newfangled electric icebox here.
Alice was picking daintily away at a hunk of slippery
ice when she felt herself surrounded by the aura of Mr. Johnson. He had on a stiff, clean new pair of cotton work pants, but the green shirt was the same. Also the underwear. The pick fell from her nerveless fingers, and he took it, aimed one vicious powerful blow that struck like lightning and shattered the whole side of the ice cake. • He grinned. His teeth were very bad. 'O.K.?' he said.
'Thank you,' said Alice and filled her dish, watching out of the comer of her eye as he sauntered over and picked an apple peel off a dirty dish to nibble on. She fled, wondering for the nineteenth time who and why was Mr. Johnson.
At the top of the stairs she looked back. He was sauntering mto the sitting room. She heard Maud's voice. 'Say, go on downtown and get me a box of chocolates.'
'Where's the money?' said Mr. Johnson.
'You got money,' Maud said. 'Go on, be a sport.'
Then there was silence. An ugly silence. Alice fled for the third time. Her unagination, she told herself with fervent hope, was too vivid.
Fred took the bowl of ice. 'He's taking a nap.''
'Oh. Well, then . . .''
'Want to give me the keys?' Fred said.
'Of course. I'm sorry. They're in my purse.' She went off to her own room and in a moment he followed. He stepped inside the room and half closed the door.
'Is Innes all right?' she said automatically.
'Sure. I can hear. Nobody came near him all morning, did they?'
'No.' She handed him the keys to the car.
'Who's this KUleen?' Fred asked abruptly.
'Oh. Why, he's a lawyer.'
'You blush easy,' said Fred.
'rm afraid that's none of your busmess,' she told him frigidly.
'I know it. Go ahead. Smack me down some more. Is he coming, though?'
'How would I know? I suppose so. He'll probably come.' Her voice got bitter in spite of her.
Fred said, 'Well, I was going to say . . . When will he get here, do you know?'
'Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock,' Alice said
promptly and blushed again. 'I mean, naturaUy, that's the first tram.'
'Well look, if I were you I wouldn't... You didn't say anything about him downstairs?'
'No.'
