Cope had dwelt, for a
moment, on the actual presence of Aunt Harriet and on his need of her.
Randolph had made no precise study of recent chronology, taking the reason
given over the wire as a valid one and feeling glad that there was no hitch
this time.
Randolph gave Cope a rapid view of the apartment before they sat down to
dinner. There were fewer pictures on the newly-papered walls than there
were to be, and fewer rugs on the freshly-varnished floors. "My standing
lamp will be in that corner," said Randolph, in the living-room, "--when it
comes." He drew attention to a second bedroom where a man could be put up
on occasion: "you, for example, if you ever find yourself shut out late."
He saw Sir Galahad's gauntlets on the dresser. He even gave Cope a glimpse
of his kitchen, where a self-contained Oriental, slightly smiling but
otherwise inexpressive, seemed to be dealing competently with the gas-
range. But Cope was impressed, most of all, by the dining-room table and
its paraphernalia. At Mrs. Phillips' he had accepted the china, silver and
napery as a matter of course--an elaborate entity quite outside his own
thoughts and calculations: it was all so immensely far beyond his reach and
his needs.
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