"Poor Helen Starratt! She has had an awful time!... I don't know what she would have done without the Hilmers... She's so devoted to Mrs. Hilmer... I do think it's lovely that they can be together."
He felt that he could have admired a Helen Starratt with the courage of her primitive instincts. As it was, he was ashamed to own that he experienced even rancor at her pretenses.
He heard the sound of a wheeled chair coming toward the living room and he made a pretense of staring aimlessly into the street. Presently a sepulchral voice broke the silence. He turned--Mrs. Hilmer was leaning forward in her chair, regarding him attentively, while the maid stood a little to one side. He had expected to come upon a huddle of blond plumpness, an inanimate mass of forceless flesh robbed of its bovine suavity by inactivity. What he saw was a body thin to emaciation and a face drawn into a tight-lipped discontent. The old curves of flesh had melted, displaying the heaviness of the framework which had supported them. The eyes were restless and glittering, the once-plump hands shrunken into claws.
"You ... you have a message from Sylvia Molineaux?"
She tossed the question toward him with biting directness. Could it be possible that this was the same woman who had purred so contentedly over a receipt for corn pudding somewhat over a year ago?
He moved a step nearer. "Yes ... but it is private."
The maid made a slight grimace and put her hand protectingly upon Mrs. Hilmer's chair. Mrs. Hilmer shifted about impatiently.
"Never mind, Hilda," she snapped out. "I am not afraid."
"I have wanted to see her," Mrs. Hilmer went on, coldly. "But who could I send? ... Few people understand her life."
"Guessed? ... She has told me everything."
A shade of bitter malice crept into her face--the malice of a woman who has learned truths and is no longer shocked by them. Fred Starratt put his hat aside and he went up close to her.
"I lied to get in here," he said, quickly. "I am looking for Sylvia Molineaux myself."
"Why don't you try the streets, then?" she flung out, venomously.
He felt almost as if an insult had been hurled at _him_. He searched Mrs. Hilmer's face. Something more than physical pain had harrowed the woman before him to such deliberate mockery.