IV
FROM MARS
WHEN Mrs. Hollister told Vincent that she had invited in a few friends for dinner the following Tuesday his reply was not enthusiastic. "I'd give fifty dollars if you hadn't, mother," he said with a frown.
It was the doctor's fault. Mrs. Hollister lived these days simply to please and gratify Vincent, but the doctor had told her that he thought it would be a good thing for her son, if he saw more of people, and played with them a little.
She had been very careful whom she had invited—a relative or two, and a few intimate friends only, to whom she felt free to whisper a word or two of warning beforehand. There were certain questions and remarks especially unwelcome to Vincent since he had come home from the war. It would be wise, Mrs. Hollister concluded, to acquaint the two women between whom she placed him at the table, with a list of important "don'ts." She had written them out. They read something like this:
Don't ask him how it feels to be a hero.
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