II
For a month they discussed it. They hurt each other very
much, and sometimes they were close to weeping, and invariably
he used banal phrases about her duties and she used phrases
quite as banal about freedom, and through it all, her discovery
that she really could get away from Main Street was as sweet
as the discovery of love. Kennicott never consented definitely.
At most he agreed to a public theory that she was "going to
take a short trip and see what the East was like in wartime."
She set out for Washington in October—just before the
war ended.
She had determined on Washington because it was less
intimidating than the obvious New York, because she hoped to
find streets in which Hugh could play, and because in the stress
of war-work, with its demand for thousands of temporary
clerks, she could be initiated into the world of offices.
Hugh was to go with her, despite the wails and rather
extensive comments of Aunt Bessie.
She wondered if she might not encounter Erik in the East
but it was a chance thought, soon forgotten.
