Miriam glanced at the new moon and the first star and said, "I’m going to wish on them both".
"Have you heard from John yet?"
Miriam shook her head. "That’s what I’m wishing about".
"You’ll get your wish, darling. He’s sure to call you sooner or later".
"Is he?" asked Miriam. "Why?"
Erica did not know why she was so sure that he would call her. She said at last, "I guess just because he’s John".
"Was that Marc?" asked Miriam after a pause.
"Yes".
She waited for Erica to say something else, but nothing came. Her sister was looking out the window and Miriam said, "Why don’t you wish on it too?"
"I can’t think of anything I want".
"Erica", said her mother from the sofa.
"Yes, Mother?"
"Your father thinks he may be able to get away for a holiday after all, though probably only for about ten days starting next Saturday-I think it’s the 19th. If we go up to the cabin is there any chance of your being able to come with us?"
Why that week for their long overdue holiday? Why that week of all weeks, unless there had been a special fate appointed to make certain that everything which affected Marc and her should always go wrong?
She said, "I’m sorry, Mother. I can’t manage it then".
"When are you going to take your holidays?" asked her father.
"It’s not that". She waited a moment, gripping the edge of the window-seat with both hands, and then said, "I’m going to the Laurentians for a few days week after next…".
"Why?"
"Marc’s going to be on embarkation leave. He starts on Monday but he has to go to Algoma on Friday to spend the last three days with his family".
There was the usual silence, only this time it was more complete, if possible, and lasted longer. Finally her father remarked, "Evidently your friend’s family matters slightly more to him than yours does to you".
Miriam glanced at Erica quickly and then said rather acidly, "It’s not quite the same thing, is it, Charles?"
"This is the only holiday your father is going to have this year, Miriam", said her mother.
"It’s the only embarkation leave Marc is going to have too", said Miriam.
"I think you’d better mind your own business, Miriam", said her father.
"Erica’s business is my business". She glanced at Erica again and then said with sudden fury, "You leave her alone for once! All she’s got left is three days, you’ve seen to that. She’s not going to marry Marc Reiser, she’s not going to have the rest of her life with him…".
"Mimi", said Erica.
Her father had said something angrily which Miriam had not even heard, but at the sound of Erica’s voice she stopped and said, "Yes, darling…"
"I don’t want to have a row".
"It seems to be Miriam who’s having it", said her mother. She turned to Miriam, too worn and discouraged even to raise her voice, and said, "Naturally your father and I don’t expect Erica to alter any of her plans on our account. We’ve given up expecting that. So far as Erica is concerned, this isn’t her home any longer…".
"Meeting Marc on street-corners wasn’t Erica’s idea, Mother".
"So long as your mother and I are living here, Miriam, I think we’re entitled to say who comes into our home and who doesn’t. And I don’t think either of us is particularly interested in your opinions on the subject".
"No", said Miriam more reasonably, "I guess there’s no reason why you should be".
Erica was still sitting motionless beside her, with her shoulders down, and her eyes fixed on some point out in the middle of the light broadloom rug which ran the full length of the room. With her long fair hair and slender figure, she looked like a child waiting in a railway station for someone to come and take her away.
Miriam gritted her teeth, her eyes following the bookcases down the opposite wall, around the corner to the "Arlésienne" over the fireplace and then finally back to her father and mother at either end of the sofa. Evidently neither of them had anything further to say, and at last she asked, "Couldn’t you go without her?"
"We could, but we wouldn’t get much fun out of it if we did", said her mother.
"You overestimate us", said Charles.
"What?" He did not answer and she said, "I’m sorry, Charles, but what has overestimating you got to do with it?"
"Well, you can hardly expect your mother and me to go off on a holiday while Erica is having a holiday of her own with…"
Miriam thought, if he uses that word "friend" just once more I’m going to lose my temper again. But he said "…with Mr. Reiser", after another pause, and added, "we’re not quite that detached, though doubtless we should be by this time".
"I see", said Miriam.
"We should take a few lessons in detachment from Erica. She seems to manage a great deal better than we do".
"Oh, leave her alone, Charles! You’ve got everything you wanted, except for three days week after next. Why don’t you take your winnings-they’re big enough! — and be sporting enough to call quits?"
"I don’t want to have a row, Mimi", said Erica for the second time.
"As Mother has already pointed out, it’s not your row, it’s mine".
She got up suddenly, leaving Erica by herself on the window-seat, crossed the room and standing in front of her mother and father with her back to the fireplace, as though she wished to indicate that the row was to be confined to the area immediately around the sofa and did not include Erica, she said, "You brought us up to stick together-you always said to Tony and Eric and me that we should stand up for each other. I’ve listened to you going after Erica, Charles, and I’ve kept out of it because she wanted me to…" Miriam paused and then added deliberately, "I assure you that it was only because she wanted me to, and not because I agreed with you, but it’s gone too far altogether and I can’t keep out of it any longer".
She began, "I told Erica at the very beginning…" and then broke off, her eyes following Erica as her sister got up from the window-seat and ran out of the room. She stared at the empty door through which Erica had disappeared, listening to her footsteps on the stairs, and then returning to her father she said, "I told her at the beginning that she was going to have to choose between you and Marc because you would make it impossible for her to do anything else. She wouldn’t believe me. She said that sooner or later you’d come round; if only she were quiet and didn’t say anything so there wouldn’t be any rows, then she was sure you’d come round. She was wrong about that, but I was wrong too-I didn’t realize how much you mattered to Marc. There was no choice; so far as Marc was concerned it was either both of you, or he was out of the picture".
"Evidently he has a few more scruples than we gave him credit for", said her father.
"He has a lot more of what it takes to make a first-rate human being than you’ve ever given him credit for, I know that!"
Her father shifted his position on the sofa, and with his steady dark eyes fixed on her face and his expression still unchanged, he said, "What you mean is that there was never any choice so far as Erica was concerned either-she had chosen Mr. Reiser at the very start of this infatuation of hers, and her mother and I could simply take it or leave it, that was all. The way we felt about it was of course completely unimportant".
Miriam surveyed him in silence for a moment, and said finally, "Listen to me, Charles. Erica is in love with Marc. She’s not infatuated with him, she loves him. Her whole life is going to be different because of what you’ve done. But it can’t be undone now, and I’m not going to argue about it. I’m only trying to warn you".