He had been there, however; had slept upon the
bed, though not inside the covers; and Alice supposed



S20 ALICE ADAMS

he must have come home so late that he had been too
sleepy to take oflf his clothes. Near the foot of the
bed was a shallow closet where he kept his "other
suit" and his evening clothes; and the door stood
open, showing a bare wall. Nothing whatever was
in the closet, and Alice was rather surprised at this
for a moment. "That's queer," she murmured; and
then she decided that when he woke he found the
clothes he had slept in "so mussy " he had put on his
"other suit," and had gone out before breakfast with
the mussed clothes to have them pressed, taking his
evening things with them. Satisfied with this
explanation, and failing to observe that it did not
account for the absence of shoes from the closet floor,
she nodded absently, "Yes, that must be it"; and,
when her mother returned, told her that Walter had
probably breakfasted down-town. They did not
delay over this; the coloured woman had arrived, and
the basket's disclosures were important.
