57
            I am �Cold-Shouldered.�
I fell to talking with them, Matty remaining
at the table for a short time and then joining
the others, who had markedly got together in a
group at the sofa-corner, at which Tommy
was paramount.       Mrs. Edwards conversed
pleasantly and kindly, but I was stung and
mortified and indignant at the girls� apparently
turning the cold-shoulder to me, and the time
dragged wearily until 11 o�clock gave me my 
welcome cue for departure.      I had made sure
of Haney�s being there, or I might have preferred
an evening with him, and spared myself this mor-
tification.          So I went home in a pretty grim,
cynical humor; grinning bitterly to think of how
I had speculated and troubled myself touching
Sally�s future and how particularly well able that
young person seems to be, take the business
into her own hands!         I wouldn�t wonder if
Tommy hasn�t talked Eytinge about me to the girls;
of course being angry with him I suspect the little
beggar.          If so, it�s a good illustration of cause
and effect: I tell Mort Thomson (on being asked,
not before) the truth about Sol�s immaculate wife
� then strumpet � and, three or four years after,
his resentment turns up in the basement of 745!
It never pays to make an enemy, I believe, but