It was sometime later in the meal that Dick looked up from his plate
and said:

"I'd like to cut office hours on Wednesday night, David. I've asked
Elizabeth Wheeler to go into town to the theater."

"What about the baby at the Homer place?"

"Not due until Sunday. I'll leave my seat number at the box office,
anyhow."

"What are you going to see, Dick?" Mrs. Crosby asked. "Will you
have some dumplings?"


"I will, but David shouldn't. Too much starch. Why, it's 'The
Valley,' I think. An actress named Carlysle, Beverly Carlysle, is
starring in it."

He ate on, his mind not on his food, but back in the white house
on Palmer Lane, and a girl. Lucy Crosby, fork in air, stared at
him, and then glanced at David.

But David did not look up from his plate.




III