CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
PUTTING ON THE BRAKE.
The holidays went by rapidly enough.

I tore myself away from Dicky's consoling companionship three days from the end, and rushed home to see my mother.

I wonder what she thought of the difference a couple of weeks had made in me?
When I started to Dicky's I had been limp, dejected, and down on my luck.

Now she found me chirpy, and with a stiff upper lip.

She did not make remarks, but I could see how relieved she was.
My mother was not the person to take a mean advantage of me, or get me into a corner to lecture me.