CHAPTER SEVEN

"My goodness, Margaret. I have bad news to tell you!" said Aunt Munt, "It seems that the Wilcoxes are moving into one of those new apartments across the way!"

Aunt Munt was always watching the apartments around Wickham Place very carefully. She always knew when people were moving in or out of them. She even knew how much the rents were.

"Oh, that's quite alright," answered Margaret, "I'm sure Helen won't mind at all. She's got lots of other things to think about."

"But surely she will meet them on the street sometime. How embarrassing for her."

"Well, I didn't tell you, but I wrote the Wilcox family a letter just after the two of you returned. I apologized for what happened, but they never wrote me back."

"That was terribly bad of them!"

"Maybe they did the right thing. I don't know. Besides, Helen feels nothing at all about them any longer."

"I feel nothing for whom?" asked Helen, who was just walking into the room.

"Well, I hate to tell you this, but the W's have moved into an apartment just across the way there," said Aunt Munt.

Immediately, Helen's face turned bright red. This caused both Margaret and Aunt Munt to worry for a moment.

"Oh, well that's fine with me," said Helen, "I've no trouble with it. None at all. In fact, I won't be around here for a while. I'm going to Germany with our dear cousin, here."

Helen was referring to the sisters' cousin, Miss Mosebach, who was presently visiting them from Germany, and had up until then, silently listened to the conversation between Margaret and Aunt Munt. She decided that the conversation might get more uncomfortable if continued further, so she made up a lie.

"Hey, I think I hear Bruno coming! Let's go down and see if he's really here!"

Helen and her cousin then ran out of the room, but of course, their friend had not yet arrived. However, this gave Margaret and Aunt Munt more time to talk alone.

"See. I told you she would be upset," started Aunt Munt.

"Oh! That family! All of them, so rude! You and Helen must make a plan to protect yourselves from them."

"That's unnecessary, Auntie," said Margaret, "They don't care about us anymore. I'm really not worried about it."

"But you should be. What will you do or say if, one day, you happen to meet one another or see one another across the way? It's much better to be prepared, I'd say."

"But I prefer to take chances in life. I don't worry as much as most people about things, because Helen and I both have money. As long as we have that, we'll both be fine."

"What an ugly thing to say."

"I know it, but I hate pretending not to be what I am: rich. Most poor people cannot change their situation in life. We, Helen and I, can choose whatever home or man we want. And if we find that we don't want it anymore, we can leave it. Those without money can't make such easy decisions. Down there, among those poor people, is the real world. We, up here, with all of our money, we're living in some impossible dream world. We have no sense of what it really means to live."

"You have money and yet it sounds as though you don't like money."

"Oh, no. I love money!"

(end of section)