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on without saying anything?"
    "Well, now, I'll bet that's just what she did," Fay said, "She must have. And here I've been worrying my head off about her."
    "Why don't you call the school and make sure?" I said.
    "Oh, I guess I won't," she said. "I'm sure she went, the darned crazy kid! She'd be mad if I called there and had them check on her. She'd say, Why, mother, you ought to've known, and so on. And she probably wouldn't speak to me for the next week."
    "I know what you mean," I said. "I know exactly what you mean, Fay. You do or say some little thing around Bob-just doing what a parent should do, you know-and he acts like you're public enemy number one or something."
    "I'll tell you, Martha," she said. "If I'd cut up and talked back to my mother, like Josie does to-"
    "And my mother," I said. "Why, Fay, it just simply never would have occurred to me to behave around my mother like Bob-"
    "Martha," she said, "what about some coffee? I've got some of those nice fresh pecan rolls you always used to like so much."
    "Why I'd love to," I said.
    Well, I went in, and we had coffee and rolls and a nice little talk. Fay can be a very nice person when she wants to, and I'd be the first to admit it.
    It was almost noon before I remembered that I was supposed to have seen Miss Brundage at eleven.
    I jumped up and said I simply had to go, and Fay said, oh, why didn't I let the shopping go until tomorrow. But I guess she knew where I was really going, so she just argued enough to be polite. As I say, Fay can be nice.
    I hurried on toward the school, and even if I was late for my appointment I can't say when I've felt so good. You wouldn't have thought I was the same woman that had been all fly-to-pieces a couple of hours ago.
    It's like that with me. Bad beginning, good ending. Foul start, fine finish.
    It's almost always like that with me.

4
    MARTHA TALBERT
    I reached the school just as the noon bells were ringing, and if I didn't look a fright it wasn't my fault. I'd practically galloped every step of the way from Fay's house because there's just no sense in people being late for appointments, and I never am when I can possibly avoid it. Well, as I was saying, I know I must have looked a fright what with all that running and then having to climb three flights of stairs and squeezing past eight or nine hundred kids who were trying to beat each other to the cafeteria, but that certainly didn't give Miss Brundage any right to act like I was something the cat dragged in. She was coming out of her classroom-Bob's home room-as I started in, and she kept right on coming out. Barely nodding to me, kind of pushing me out of her way.
    "I'm very sorry you couldn't keep our appointment, Mrs. Talbert," she said. "I'm afraid that, unless you can wait until after three…"
    "Wait until after three!" I said. "Why, of course, I can't."
    "Perhaps we'd better make it tomorrow, then. Between eleven and twelve. I believe I explained-didn't I?-that it was the only hour of the day I had free."
    "Well, of all things!" I said. "You're free now, aren't you? You don't have anything to do now that I can see!"
    "Yes," she said. "I do have something to do now. I have to eat my lunch."
    She gave me a cool little nod and started down the hall and, honestly, it was all I could do not to grab her and shake her right out of her dress. Really, you know, you'd have thought she was the president of the United States or something and I was I-don't-know-what. And just what was all the fuss about, pray tell? It was my lunch hour, too, wasn't it? I hadn't had any lunch yet, either, and you didn't see me acting like the world was going to come to an end if I didn't eat right that minute.
    "Now, just a minute, Miss Brundage," I said, and I ran and caught up with her. "If you please , Miss Brundage! You asked me to come here today, and I came, and now that I'm here I'm-"
    "Our appointment was at eleven, Mrs. Talbert. I'm sure I explained-"
    "Well, I couldn't get here at