felt that she could be sick. She had eaten too much mayonnaise herself to be left wholly untouched by the sight of some smeared on the corner of a person's mouth. May came to the rescue.
"Big boy," she said, "wipe your mouth and if your nose needs blowing for God's sake blow it before it starts to show."
Hubert wiped his mouth.
Everybody lit cigarettes.
"I have to go home," Lillian said, "as soon as I finish this."
"Mother waiting up?" Hubert asked.
"Sure, my grandmother too."
Hubert congratulated himself. He was getting to understand her. He could tell that that time she wasn't joking. Her eyes had been perfectly serious. She did have a mother and a grandmother with whom she lived.
"I'll take you home as soon as you're ready," he said.
"We'll wait here," said May. "You can come back and pick us up."
"Now there's no sense to that," Carl protested. "We can just as well go when Lillian goes. She only lives around the corner. You'll only have another minute to linger here and what do you want to linger for anyhow?"
"Oh, I don't know."
"Just to make a little extra trouble. Come on. Lillian's ready to go now."
"All right." May got into her coat sulkily.
The waiter brought the check and Hubert paid it,
