Mrs. Severance and Ted were both standing looking
at each other and neither was saying anything--and Ted looked by his face
as if he were walking in his sleep.
"The car's down below, old boy," said Oliver helpfully, and then, a little
louder "Peter's car, you know," and whatever cobwebs had been holding
Ted for the last instant broke apart. He went over to Mrs. Severance.
"Good-by."
"Good-by," and he started making apologies again while she merely looked
and Oliver was suddenly fretting like a weary hostess whose callers have
stayed hours too long, to have him down in the car and the car pointed
again with its nose toward Southampton.
And then he heard, through Ted's last apologia, the whir of a mounting
elevator.
The elevator couldn't stop at the fourth floor--it couldn't. But it did,
and there was the noise of the gate slung back and "_What's that?_" said
Mrs. Severance sharply, her politeness broken to bits for the first time.
They were all standing near the door, and, with a complete disbelief in all
that he was hearing and seeing, Oliver heard Mrs. Severance's voice in his
ear, "The kitchen--fire-escape--" saw her push Ted toward him as if
she were shifting a piece of cumbrous furniture, and obeyed her orders
implicitly because he was too surprised to think of doing anything else.
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