"How are you getting on ?" Mary felt like replying, "Very well, thank you....

But how are you getting on, Helen ?....

you and Wally ?" Somehow, though, it sounded dreadful, even to hint that everything wasn't as it should be between Wally and his wife.
"Besides," thought Mary, "she'd only say, 'Oh, all right,' and yawn and change the subject--and what could I do then ?" She answered herself, "Nothing," and thoughtfully added, "It will take a lot of tact." Indeed there are some topics which require so much tact in their presentation that the article becomes lost in its wrappings, and its presence isn't even suspected by the recipient.
"How's Wally ?" asked Mary.
"Oh, he's all right." "When I saw him the other day, I thought he was looking a bit under." "Oh, I don't know--" As Mary had guessed, Helen patted her hand over her mouth to hide a yawn.
"How's Aunt Patty and Aunt Cordelia ?" she asked.
Mary sighed to herself.
"What can I do ?" she thought.

"If I say, 'Helen, you know you're not happy.

Folks never are unless they are doing something useful,' she would only think I was trying to preach to her.