Free Maris by Grace Livingston Hill Page A

that if she is not utterly selfish and were consulted, she would say that I am entirely right.
    "So we are arranging for you to be here during the next strenuous weeks until the wedding is over, and then your coming and going need not affect the patients in the house. So, my dear, run along and get packed, for the nurse will be there soon, and Tilford doesn't want to be kept waiting tonight, he says."
    Maris was so still for a long moment that Mrs. Thorpe thought she must have hung up or that something was wrong with the phone. She began to jiggle the receiver up and down. Maris was so angry she could hardly trust herself to speak. She shut her eyes and leaned her head against the telephone. This was a crucial moment, and she dare not trust her overwrought feelings. Then she spoke:
    "I suppose that you are trying to be kind to me, Mrs. Thorpe, and I should perhaps thank you for thinking of me, but what you have suggested is quite out of the question. We do not want another nurse, and if she comes I shall only have to send her away, so if she has not already started, kindly tell her not to come. And as for your other suggestion, that I come to your house and stay, even for only the evening, it is quite impossible. Unfortunately for your plans, I love my mother and my little sister, and I would not be willing to be away from them at this time of trouble and anxiety. I could not, even for the sake of social etiquette, be willing to attend a party of any kind when my mother is lying at the point of death and my whole family needs me as they have never needed me before. I should think that anyone with any heart at all would know this and understand perfectly. My friends all would, and would not expect me to come. But if there are any who do not, I do not care. I shall go out no more till my mother is better and I am not needed here. I will immediately call up the people who have invited me and inform them of the situation. And please do not trouble any further to make plans for me. You apparently do not understand my situation in the least."
    "Oh, really ?" said Mrs. Thorpe. "I should say that you were an ungrateful girl. A headstrong little spitfire! Well, I have done my best to help you through a trying situation. I told Tilford he had better tell you himself, but he seemed to think I could handle the situation more delicately. I see he was wrong. Well, he will probably be around to explain himself how hard we have tried to fix things for you. Good afternoon!" And Mrs. Thorpe hung up.
    When Maris turned away from the telephone, she was trembling with indignation. The idea of expecting her to go out to dinner when her mother was so sick! Well, of course, she should have remembered to telephone Irma. She would do it at once.
    So she looked up the number and fortunately got her haughty future sister-in-law without trouble. She explained!
    "I'm just as sorry as I can be that I didn't call you sooner, Irma, to let you know that I can't come to your dinner tonight," she said humbly, "but I suppose, of course, Tilford would tell you all about our trouble here. And to tell you the truth, I have been so frightened all day, and so hurried and burdened, that everything else was driven out of my head. I do hope you will forgive me for not sending you word at once. My mother is at the point of death, and I cannot be away from the house."
    "Oh, really ?" said Irma coldly. "And what am I supposed to do? I invite my friends to meet my future sister-in-law and she stays away! Surely you wouldn't put me in that position. You certainly can get away for a few hours, can't you? Aren't there enough in your family to look out for your mother? And there are such things as doctors and nurses. Surely her life is not dependent upon you, and nobody who will be here knows your mother anyway."
    "Oh, Irma!" said Maris, aghast at such a cold-blooded attitude. "Would you go out to a dinner party when your mother might be dying?"
    "I'm sure I hope I'd do my