Harriet then requested a small break to have some tea and go potty. Bette and Tina smiled as they were directed to the powder room across the hall. They agreed that Harriet was making progress, but that specific questions would need to be asked. After washing their hands, they smiled at each other and reassured each other that everything was fine with the other and then they walked back into the sitting room. They asked for some water to drink as they had had their quota of coffee for the morning.

Harriett: I must say Elizabeth, you are as attractive as you were as a young person, perhaps more so and your wife is equally attractive. I remember so well when you father found out that you were dating women.  I thought he was going to go into die on the spot of apoplexy. He huffed and puffed around and the language. He then immediately blamed Maxine. He could not understand how this could be. To him it just wasn’t natural. And the day I told him he needed to calm down and just accept the idea, I thought he was going to fire me. I then reminded him that you probably saw the same thing in women as he did. That which attracted him, attracted you. I reminded him that these things were not generally a matter of choice but a matter of nature. People do not select behaviors which cause them to be ostracized by other people. Homosexuals have been in the society for  centuries and they will continue to exist whether Melvin Porter had anything to say about it or not. He had been through a lot with Kit and her addictions. I know Melvin had Kit in and out of institutions of help her with her problems. Sometimes it was not known to her. He got so frustrated with her that he cut her off financially. But he never cut her out of his will. He just hoped that she had better control of her life by the time he died.  And then there was his Elizabeth.  He was so proud of you. He would say to me that you were smart and beautiful and how much he wanted you to follow in his footsteps and go to Harvard. He really wanted you to be a partner in the firm of Wescott and Porter. But he knew that was not your destiny when you announced to him that you were going to Yale. I reminded him that Yale too was a very fine school and provided well educated graduates and was just as good a school as Harvard. Half the lawyers in the firm came from schools other than Harvard. He was so proud of you. Even though you were not going to follow in his footsteps, he knew that you would leave your mark on this world in your own way, and for that he was proud of you. I think one of the reasons he was so upset about you being interested in women was that you would probably never give him grandchildren.