The Banker and the Bear

Dick has never been able satisfactorily to explain why, as soon as she had finished her breakfast that morning, she went to the bank. Just before starting she told Alice that John had run off without his eye-glasses, and that she was going to take them down to him, which was true, but not entirely adequate. She told herself that since Mrs. Sponley's fever had abated, she was sure to want to know all about the happenings of the day before, and that telling her might have serious consequences. Alice would not be able to give her any information about it, and the morning paper containing the interview that had so badly frightened Curtin had been stuffed, as soon as Dick had read it, into John's pocket, and was now on its way down town. So that if Dick herself was well out of the way, Mrs. Sponley might have whatever poor happiness ignorance affords, for a while longer. That was an excellent reason. A year later Jack Dorlin told her that she came to the bank on Thursday morning simply because he had not come to see her Wednesday evening, which was a piece of impudence Dick could well afford to answer merely with an infinitely scornful smile.

They met at the corner, half a square away from the bank.