"Read for a while, then go to bed. I'll be all right. Don't worry about me."
"Good night, Lil. Gee, don't you think the Fishers or the Sullivans should have asked you along like Theresa did?"
"Why should they?"
"Well, the Mosses did."
"Oh, that was just a bowl of cherries. They knew I wouldn't come. People aren't little gods, Hubert. They do what's going to make things most pleasant for themselves."
"I hope you don't mean me, Lil."
"Oh, go home, you old fool. You're cluttering up my doorstep."
Hubert laughed and went out. He looked up at the living-room from the garden court and saw that Lillian had turned off the lights on the little tree. He wondered what she was doing. Gee, poor kid, all alone. He wished Helen had gone away for Christmas as she had last year.
At ten minutes past eleven the Mosses were back at Lillian's house.
"Oh," she said as she opened the door for them, "you shouldn't have."
They looked at her and then away quickly. She wouldn't like to be stared at now. Hymie threw off his coat and Theresa unwrapped a bundle of sandwiches and Christmas cakes.
"I don't suppose you have any coffee?" she said. "Hymie's sister wanted me to bring some along in case you wouldn't have, but I'm a great one for gambling."
