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.