Beth's Wonder-Winter by Marion Ames Taggart

One of the strangest things in all her strange new life to Beth was / the fact that although one lived in the same house with people it might / be quite impossible to see them without planning for it. Sometimes her / Aunt Alida breakfasted in her room, lunched and dined out and Beth / could not see her that day. Mr. Cortlandt's morning hours varied. He / was not often away, except when he and his wife were absent together, / for he was exceedingly fond of his home and of his lovely wife, but / sometimes he breakfasted early, sometimes not at all at home, but at / the Country Club where he went to play golf till the snow flew. He was / never at home to lunch and if he had a dinner engagement on successive / days it happened that Beth might not see him for several days. Even / Natalie and Alys were sometimes hard to catch; Dirk was always to be / found at certain hours, but during the daytime Natalie and Alys had / their youthful engagements which separated them from their cousin for / hours. It seemed to Beth hardly possible that a family could live under / one roof in such separation, when it was a most affectionate and happy / family.

Beth thought of the close intimacy of the simple households she / had known "when she was little. " She began to think of her life in / Massachusetts as something that had happened years ago. A change as / great as the one that had befallen Beth acts like years in putting / previous ways and days far behind one.