Love for Sale

he knocked, but the others fell silent at his arrival.
    “Strange folks,“ he muttered to himself as he went back down the stairs.
    He found Lily and Phoebe in the library, gossiping mildly about Miss Langston.
    “I wonder if it was female problems instead of this appendix story,“ Lily was saying to Phoebe.
    Robert turned around and left the room. There was nothing on earth he’d rather not hear about.
    “Could be,“ Phoebe allowed. “She might have been embarrassed to say so. I should be feeling sorry for her, but I can’t.“
    “You’ve had trouble with her?“
    “Over a hat, at least eventually,“ Phoebe said. “First she said she’d heard I lived upstairs above my shop. She wanted to see my rooms. Claimed that she could tell a lot about people’s taste and character by seeing how they lived.”
    Phoebe went on, “I said it wasn’t important what my tastes were. It was valuable to know hers, so why didn’t we go look at where she lived? That made her mad to start with. She drew up a sketch of what she wanted, picked out a dark blue color for the hat and veil. Then brought it back because she thought the veil was too dark. She wanted me to return her money. I refused and she was really rude. And then she took an extra potshot at me for not cleaning the windows of the shop as often as I should. My shop was a blight on the landscape, she told me. And in these hard times it was especially important to keep up appearances. All it took was a bit of soap and water and ambition. Just as if I were one of the children who came to school with dirty hands.“
    “Apparently she gets away with that with the children. Mrs. Tarkington says they adore her, tough as she is. By the way, Roxanne Anderson’s oldest girl is in my class. I’m glad she’s determined that her girls be well educated. And not at all surprised. She’s a tough woman as well. I wonder if for some reason Miss Langston doesn’t come back if the school would consider hiring her instead. All she has to live on is her money from her gardening. And that’s pretty much a summer job.“
    “If Miss Langston doesn’t return pretty soon, you might suggest her,“ Phoebe said.

    Saturday morning, after taking breakfast up to the guests, then fetching the trays and plates back, Robert went to work setting up the croquet court in the flat area behind the house, in spite of the fact that the weather had turned cloudy, windy, and cold.
    “It’s too cold for this,“ Lily said, in her coat and hat with her hands up her opposite sleeves.
    “It’ll warm up by this afternoon if the sun stays out,“ Robert said. “Don’t you dare think of backing out. Even Mr. and Mrs. Prinney have agreed to play.”
    But it didn’t warm up much. Miss Exley arrived, looking grand in an azure hand-knitted, belted, nubby wool coat with a matching hat. She looked very glamorous except for wearing golf shoes.
    Robert refused to wear more than a light jacket over a sport coat and wool trousers. Lily was bundled up in her tatty sable coat and a pair of Mrs. Prinney’s ghastly homemade, violently colored mittens and matching hat. Mrs. Prinney wore her old muskrat jacket, gloves, hat, and boots.
    Robert explained the rules in great detail, which everyone ignored. Phoebe, who’d taken the afternoon off, was huddled on a lawn chair wrapped up in two afghans and was talking to Lily about Mrs. Governor Roosevelt having been in that morning to pick up her inauguration hat. “Poor dear lady, it’s an awful hat, and yet she was really happy with it.“
    “Lily, are you listening to me?“ Robert called to his sister.
    “Not really. All that matters is that you know the rules,“ she said, abandoning Phoebe and picking up a mallet.
    “Not that one,“ Robert said. “Your mallet and balls are the green ones.”
    “Why?“
    “They just are! Take my word for it.”
    Within half an hour Robert was nearly berserk. “You’re all cheating,“ he said. “And that dog isn’t helping.”
    Lily’s dog, Agatha, was trying to get the balls in her mouth, slobbering all over them and moving them around. She was also nipping at mallets and trying to squeeze through the hoops and knocking them down.
    “We’re cheating to make this game end,“ Lily said. “We’re all freezing to death.”
    Mrs. Prinney had given up early, citing the excuse that she had to start dinner for their guests. Phoebe had simply disappeared with no explanation at all. Miss Exley said she had to go