Carmella Commands
get Carmella into this mood of high and heart-rending frankness.
“I answered your question, and I gotta go, and go quick. I gotta go. Good-bye, Mrs. Barrington!”
The interview’s final touch of courtesy was Carmella’s, descendant possibly of ancient kings; descendant surely of a civilization that was older than that of Hope House. Miss Sargle breathed heavily and hurried to her own office before Mrs. Barrington could speak.
Carmella, as she fled, was appalled at her own boldness. She ran from what had happened as well as to answer her mother’s summons. Her sturdy legs bore her swiftly down the street as Mrs. Barrington looked through the window after her. Much more swiftly than she had come Carmella was going.
Mrs. Barrington sat down to think over an entirely new notion.
“High hat,” indeed!
And what exactly, she wondered to herself, was high hat? She had heard her own Margaret use the phrase, too. Evidently it was something that ran through all the social layers. And it might be an idea worth considering.
Was it by any chance that settlement work was handicapped by this high hatting? Her thought turned again to the Ashcroft Circle. Was it the same instinct that had caused the newcoming juniors to
[25]
