I
Judith was glad, afterward, that the responsibility for Eileen had
been lifted from David Trench’s shoulders, howsoever humiliating the
conditions might be. All that would have made for guidance had long
since been wrested from his hands, and the inevitable pain would be
robbed of the corrosive quality of self-reproach. She wondered what he
was thinking, that portentous Monday evening, as he gazed past her and
Theodora to the row of seats across the aisle where Hal and Eileen sat,
munching popcorn and making audible comments on the speeches, comments
that bubbled with cleverness not always refined in its quality.
Just as the perspiring statesman appeared on the flag-draped platform,
bearing a message from the Governor of the state, Dr. Schubert and
his son came down the aisle, looking to right and left with searching
eyes. Theodora stood on tiptoe to signal them. There was a shifting of
the original seating arrangement, so that Sydney and Sylvia might be
together. The first few sentences of the florid oration were lost in
the general confusion, and when Judith looked again into the row of
seats across the aisle, two places were vacant. Hal and Eileen had gone.