IT was on the Tuesday following that Mrs. Mallory gave her lunch party for Kay. All morning in her front room on the second floor Kay had heard the preparations going on for the meal; the squawking of chickens in the back yard, followed by a tragic silence, the arrival of the grocer's boy, Nellie turning the ice-cream freezer on the porch.
"You keep that lid down, or the salt will get in."
"I've got to look at it, haven't I? How do I know if it's freezing or not?"
Later the smell of cooking filled the house, and at half past twelve Mrs. Mallory came heavily up the stairs and tapped at the door.
"You'd better be getting ready," she said solemnly. "I just got to slip off this apron." She came into the room. "Would you mind if they came up here to take off their hats and coats? It's the best room. That George Smith's got his place so littered it's hardly decent."
George Smith was the railway freight brakeman who occupied at intervals the bedroom across.
"Of course not." She went over and put an arm around Mrs. Mallory's heavy shoulders. "You're sweet to go to all this trouble for me."
"I want you to know people. They're not the society folks, you know, Kay. They're plain people."
"Well, so am I 'plain people.'"
"No, you're not. And it wouldn't hurt some folks I know of to come and see you. They came fast enough when you were out last year at the ranch."
It was an old grievance of hers. Kay had heard it more than once in the two weeks she had been there. She changed the subject.
"Anyhow the rain's over," she said, and Mrs. Mallory went out.
