"
"I am sure he is very good."
"So he is. He is very poor. But you are very attractive. There,
I'm a skeptic about men, but you can trust Peter. Only don't fall
in love with him. It will be years before he can marry. And don't
let him fall in love with you. He probably will."
Whereupon Dr. Gates taking herself and her pink flannel off to
prepare for lunch, Harmony sent a formal note to Peter Byrne,
regretting that a headache kept her from taking the afternoon
walk as she had promised. Also, to avoid meeting him, she did
without dinner, and spent the afternoon crying herself into a
headache that was real enough.
Anna Gates was no fool. While she made her few preparations for
dinner she repented bitterly what she had said to Harmony. It is
difficult for the sophistry of forty to remember and cherish the
innocence of twenty. For illusions it is apt to substitute facts,
the material for the spiritual, the body against the soul. Dr.
Gates, from her school of general practice, had come to view life
along physiological lines.
With her customary frankness she approached Peter after the meal.
"I've been making mischief, Peter. I been talking too much, as
usual."
"Certainly not about me, Doctor. Out of my blameless life--"
"About you, as a representative member of your sex. I'm a fool."
Peter looked serious. He had put on the newly pressed suit and
his best tie, and was looking distinguished and just now rather
stern.
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