Everybody got plastered as soon as possible. That was the way you had a good time. Louise Casey was having a very good time. She was about to be ill any moment. She sat in a corner of the sofa wondering whether she ought to go and have it over with right away or wait till there was no choice in the matter. In one hand she held a cigarette and in the other a glass of gin mixed with Nedick's orange juice. Louise was going to marry Billy. His mother, who had arranged that they should all live together, knew that they were going to be married; so she made no comments when she found Louise's handkerchiefs under Billy's pillow.
Anna Leitz and her Fred danced past Louise and she stuck her foot out and tripped them. They fell. Everybody laughed except Anna. She was never one to take an affront lightly. She belonged to the class who always want explanations.
"You looked so pleased with yourself and so sure you were the last word in grace that I just had to trip you." Louise knew Anna's weakness for explanations.
"You would," said Anna coldly. She frowned at the carpet and made a great to-do about dusting the back of her dress. Then swiftly putting on the ecstatic, rapt expression that she used when dancing, Anna offered her arms again to Fred.
Over on the wing-chair Mary Jackson was telling Lillian Cory all about how she felt. Mary was going to have a baby. Almost any minute. Lillian had drawn her chair up close not because she wanted to listen but because Mary had told her to. Hubert was listening, too. He had a great respect for women who were "that
