“Well, we wouldn’t want to interrupt them,” said Herb. As soon as the words left him, they sounded to him like part of an off-color joke, and he reddened in the dark. “I mean — ” he began, and he realized that he’d only make things worse by explaining himself, so he just stopped.
Mrs. Stolz had, on her own, begun walking toward Dudley’s front door. Herb and Lorna followed slowly, silently. Mrs. Stolz stopped at the foot of the steps. Herb and Lorna stopped just behind her. Lights were burning in the front rooms — the living room and the dining room. The windows were slightly above eye level. Herb stood on his toes. From below he could see only the ceiling, the top of a cabinet, triangles of light cast on the walls by the lamps. He heard no voices.
Mrs. Stolz turned and looked at Herb and Lorna in turn. She dropped her guard. “Shall we walk around to the side?” she asked Herb.
“Well, we could,” said Herb.
“Yes, let’s,” said Mrs. Stolz. “Then we’ll know if they’re — if we should — if they’re busy studying. Because we wouldn’t want to interrupt them if they’re studying. But of course I’m sure they’re studying. I mean — Oh, come on.”
They walked to the side of the house.
“I still can’t see in,” said Herb.
“Lift me up,” said Lorna.
“What?” said Herb.
“Or get down on your hands and knees, Herb,” said Lorna.
“I — ”
“Go ahead, Herb.”
Herb got onto his hands and knees, and Lorna clambered onto his back and peeked through the window.
“Well?” asked Herb.
Lorna was afraid to raise her head much above the windowsill, but she could see the back of Dudley’s sofa, and its right arm. One lamp was on in the room. She couldn’t see any sign of Dudley or Ella, and she couldn’t hear anything. “I — ” said Lorna, and stopped. Ella’s bare arms appeared above the sofa, as if she were stretching. They waved about, languidly, prettily. Then Dudley’s right arm appeared, raised as if he were stretching. It began to drop, slowly, hesitated, then fell along the back of the sofa, where Ella’s shoulders would have been, then slipped out of sight.
“You what?” asked Herb.
“I see them,” whispered Lorna. She noticed Ella’s book on the dining room table, closed. The carnation she had worn in her hair lay beside it. “They’re at the dining room table,” Lorna said. What on earth are they up to? she asked herself.
“Studying?” asked Herb.
Ella’s feet suddenly appeared on the arm of the sofa. She kicked off her shoes. She must have her head in his lap, Lorna thought. “Studying!” she said, almost too loudly.
“Studying!” said Mrs. Stolz. “Isn’t that wonderful?”
Lorna stepped down from Herb’s back. What am I going to do about this? she asked herself. Herb stood up and rubbed his hands. Lorna began putting her shoes back on. Mrs. Stolz chewed on her lower lip.
Studying, Herb said to himself. I shouldn’t have thought what I was thinking.
Mrs. Stolz shuddered. Embarrassment, or shame, had chilled them all. An old busybody, she thought. I’m becoming an old busybody. Lorna put her arms around her shoulders.
“Let’s go home,” said Lorna. When they reached the end of Dudley’s walk, she said, as if the thought had just occurred to her, “You know, it is late, and Ella’s at an age when she — ”
Herb and Mrs. Stolz had stopped.
“ — when she needs plenty of sleep,” said Lorna. She put one arm around Herb’s waist and the other around Mrs. Stolz’s and urged them toward the house. “I think I’ll call when we get inside and ask Dudley to send her home.”
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