There were footsteps behind him, then a voice: "Cousin Lymon, your dinner is set out upoable."
"My appetite is poor tonight," said the hunchback, who had beeing sweet snuff all the day. "There is a sourness in my mouth."
"Just a pick," said Miss Amelia. "The breast, the liver, and the heart."
Together they went bato the bright café, and sat down with Henry Macy. Their table was the largest one in the café, and on it there was a bouquet of s lilies in a Coca Cola bottle. Miss Amelia had finished with her patient and was satisfied with herself. From behind the closed office door there had e only a few sleepy whimpers, and before the patient could wake up and bee terrified it was all over. The child was now slung across the shoulder of his father, sleeping deeply, his little arms dangling loose along his fathers back, and his puffed-up face very red -- they were leaving the café to go home.
Henry Macy was still silent. He ate carefully, making no noise when he swallowed, and was not a third as greedy as Cousin Lymon who had claimed to have no appetite and was now putting down helping after helping of the dinner. Occasionally Henry Macy looked across at Miss Amelia and again held his peace.
It ical Saturday night. An old couple who had e in from the try hesitated for a moment at the doorway, holding each others hand, and finally decided to e ihey had lived together so long, this old try couple, that they looked as similar as twins. They were brown, shriveled, and like two little walkis. They left early, and by midnight most of the other ers were gone. Rosser e and Merlie Ryan still played checkers, and Stumpy MacPhail sat with a liquor bottle on his table (his wife would not allow it in the home) and carried on peaceable versations with himself. Henry Macy had not yet gone away, and this was unusual, as he almost always went to bed soon after nightfall. Miss Amelia yawned sleepily, but Lymon was restless and she did not suggest that they close up for the night.
Finally, at one oclock, Henry Macy looked up at the er of the ceiling and said quietly to Miss Amelia: "I got a letter today."
Miss Amelia was not oo be impressed by this, because all sorts of business letters and catalogues came addressed to her.
"I got a letter from my brother," said Henry Macy.
The hunchback, who had been goose-stepping about the café with his hands clasped behind his head, stopped suddenly. He was quick to sense any ge imosphere of a gathering. He gla each fa the room and waited.
Miss Amelia scowled and hardened her right fist "You are wele to it," she said.
"He is on parole. He is out of the peiary."
The faiss Amelia was very dark, and she shivered although the night was warm. Stumpy MacPhail and Merlie Ryan pushed aside their checker game. The café was very quiet.
"Who?" asked Cousin Lymon. His large, pale ears seemed to grow on his head and stiffen. "What?"
Miss Amelia slapped her hands palm down oable. "Because Marvin Macy is a --" But her voice hoarsened and after a few moments she only said: "He belongs to be in that peiary the balance of his life."
"What did he do?" asked Cousin Lymon.
There was a long pause, as no one kly how to ahis. "He robbed three filling stations," said Stumpy MacPhail. But his words did not sound plete and there was a feeling of si uioned.
The hunchback was impatient. He could not bear to be left out of anything, even a great mi