Page:Stella Dallas, a novel (IA stelladallasnove00prou).pdf/30

20 knew. Also she knew that it was not customary for little girls to visit their fathers alone. So now she replied, "No, I'm going to visit a hotel."

"But you'll see your father, of course?"

It appeared quite legitimate, Laurel had long ago discovered, for grown-up people to ask questions of a child which they'd never think of asking each other. Therefore, she decided, it was legitimate for children to remain silent when they chose. Of course she wasn't a little child who might refuse to speak and not mean to be rude, but if people would keep on asking questions as if she were only six, she would keep on being silent. She was silent now. She closed her lips firmly, and from beneath her long bang stared blankly across the lobby. The lady repeated her question.

"You'll see your father, won't you?"

Laurel continued her blank stare. Her eyes took on a vacant, far-away expression, as if she had suddenly fallen to day-dreaming, and was thousands of miles away from the hotel lobby and the lady. In reality she was keenly conscious of the moment and the place, and was keenly suffering, too. Laurel didn't like being rude. She would like to answer every question ever asked her. Only she couldn't always. People nudged, and smiled, and raised their eyebrows sometimes.

"Well," said the lady, less sweetly now, "I'm sure your mother will miss you, whomever you're going to see, for she doesn't seem to have made many intimate friends in the hotel."

How unkind! How cruel! It swept over Laurel that she would like to make up a face at this