The sidewalks were scratched with brittle leaves and the wind blew the wet laundry stiff on the line. Snow before night, sure. Autumn was over. This, of course, raised the coal question and the Christmas question; but Roger Halsey, standing on his own front porch, announced to the dead suburban sky that he hadn't time for worrying about the weather. Then he let himself hurriedly into the house and left the subject out in the cold twilight.

The hall was dark, but from above he heard the voices of his wife and the nursemaid and the baby in one of their interminable conversations, which consisted chiefly of “Don’t!” and “Look out, Maxy!” and “Oh, there he goes!” punctuated by wild threats and vague bumpings and the recurrent sound of small, venturing feet.

Roger turned on the hall light and walked into the living room and turned on the red silk lamp. He put his bulging portfolio on the table, and sitting down rested his intense young face in his hand for a few minutes, shading his eyes carefully from the light. Then he lit a cigarette, squashed it out, and going to the foot of the stairs called for his wife.

“Gretchen!”

“Hello, dear.” Her voice was full of laughter. “Come see baby.” He swore softly.

“I can't see baby now,” he said aloud. “How long ‘fore you’ll be down?”

There was a mysterious pause and then a succession of Don’ts and Look out, Maxys, evidently meant to avert some threatened catastrophe.

“How long ‘fore you’ll be down?” repeated Roger, slightly irritated.

“Oh, I’ll be right down.”

“How soon?” he shouted.

He had trouble every day at this hour in adapting his voice from the urgent key of the city to the proper casualness for a model home. But tonight he was deliberately impatient. It almost disappointed him when Gretchen came running down the stairs, three at a time, crying “What is it?” in a rather surprised voice.

They kissed—lingered over it some moments. They had been married three years, and they were much more in love than that implies. It was seldom that they hated each other with that violent hate of which only young couples are capable, for Roger was still actively sensitive to her beauty.

“Come in here,” he said abruptly. “I want to talk to you.”