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 and of baths so hot that they burned her skin. She was almost ready to say, "Well, what's to be will be."

Only Eddie said, "What are you going to do now?"

She thought of Maude McLaughlin the next day. Maude had always been wise. She would know something. Time was growing very important now. In fear of being put off, Dot went without preparing Maude for her visit. What are you going to do now? Eddie had asked. Even hours seemed precious. What are you going to do now?

Maude was at home, a Maude in kimono and mules, a Maude with tousled hair.

"I didn't think I'd find you home," said Dot. "But I took a chance."

She followed Maude down the hall into the dining-room. From abovestairs a voice floated down.

"Who is it, Maudie?"

"For me," said Maude, curtly.

That had been Mrs. McLaughlin, Dot knew. She wished that she could speak to her. She would probably be able to help.

"I'm spending the day in," said Maude. "We have visitors. A niece of mine is visiting us. You didn't know my sister, did you?"

"Didn't know you had one."

That seemed to vex Maude. "Of course I have a sister," she said. "She is married and lives upstate. She's sick and has sent her kid down here for us to mind. I was playing with her when you came in."

"Funny to think of you playing with a kid."

"Oh, I'm good at it," said Maude.

A tall negress in a stiff white dress came to close the door that divided the dining-room from a room beyond. Dot caught a flash of a blond-haired tot of two or thereabouts. The door closed, and the child's voice, raised in instant disapproval, rent the air. Between her violent