‘What a nice evening! What a beautiful house! What an interesting family! What a pretty girl Marian is!’

          He looked into Catherine’s eyes. She said nothing. He talked and she listened and looked at him. The dancing began again. He asked her to dance and she gave him her arm. After the dance, her face was red and she was hot.

          ‘We’ll sit and talk,’ said Mr Townsend. But he talked and Catherine listened. Catherine sat back. She thought he was very clever. ‘This is my first visit to Mrs Almond’s,’ he said. ‘And my first visit to New York for many years. 1 lived here when I was a child but 1 left when I was twenty. I went round the world. I came back to New York only a month ago. It is a nice city but I don’t know anybody. You see, people forget you,’ he said and smiled at Catherine.

          Catherine thought, ‘I’ll never forget you.’

          They sat there for some time. They laughed together. He asked her about the people near them. He gave his opinions about them. She thought he was very honest. Then Marian Almond came back and took Mr Townsend away to her mother.

          ‘We’ll meet again,’ he said to Catherine. Marian came back and took Catherine’s arm. They walked round the room together:

          ‘What do you think of Morris?’ she said.

          For the first time in her life Catherine did not tell the truth. ‘Oh, nothing much,’ she answered.

          ‘I’ll tell him that!’ cried Marian. ‘It will be good for him. He has a very good opinion of Morris Townsend! Arthur says that, and Arthur knows him.’

          Half an hour later, Catherine saw her Aunt Penniman near a window. Morris Townsend stood next to her. Then Dr Sloper arrived. He usually had a little smile on his face, but never a big smile. He looked at his daughter’s red dress.

          ‘Can this handsome woman be my child?’ he asked. Catherine did not always understand her father’s words.

          ‘I’m not handsome,’ she said, quietly.

          ‘You’re rich!’ he said. ‘Is the evening going well?’

          ‘I’m rather tired,’ she answered and looked away. That evening was the beginning of something important for Catherine. For the second time in her life and in one evening, she did not speak the truth. She was not tired. They drove home. Dr Sloper spoke to his sister, Lavinia.

          ‘Who was the young man who spoke of his love for you?’

          ‘Oh, Austin,’ said Mrs Penniman. She smiled. ‘He spoke to me of Catherine.’

          ‘Oh, Aunt Penniman,’ Catherine cried out, quietly.

          ‘He’s very handsome. He’s very clever,’ said her aunt.

          ‘He’s in love with our expensive Catherine, then?’ the doctor asked. He laughed.

          ‘I don’t know that. But he liked her dress.’

          Catherine did not think, ‘My dress only?’ She thought what a warm and rich thing to say.

          ‘You see,’ said her father. ‘He thinks she has eighty thousand dollars.’

          ‘In my opinion, he doesn’t think of that; he’s not a vulgar man,’ said Mrs Penniman.

          ‘The time is here,’ the doctor thought. ‘Lavinia is going to get a lover for Catherine. I’m sorry for the girl.’