Night for Decision

A Story by Frances LaSalle

Tay sat on the edge of her bed. One hand kept raking through her dark and usually well-kept hair. "This is the night,"she told herself. "I must know before morning." She drew in her breath heavily. "I must know."

It wasn't that Millicent required a decision now. For Millicent had said, "I'll wait on your answer forever, darling, if only then you'll say 'Yes!" But long before forever, Tay would have destroyed her own self. way, even if Millicent would wait and could keeping her waiting be fair?

And any-

would

For that matter, how fair had she been with Don? "Oh, Don," Tay said, a note of aggravation in her half-aloud voice. She had been giving Don so much of her time lately. Too much of her time.

Yet, Tay considered over and over monotonously, Don was such a fine boy. Already climbing fast in his father's $400,000 business. Her mother and father displayed such pride that soon they might be announcing their daughter's ongagement to the "best catch in the county" only they didn't word it that way. Then there was Alan, her younger brother, who planned so hopefully on being asked into the firm of Don's father as soon as he had taken his degree at State U. Even Geraldine, Tay's younger sister, went sparkle-eyed whenever Don's name came up. "I'll be the most beautiful bridesmaid at the wedding," she announced with the ego of sixteen.

But more than these three, Tay must consider her parents. Her conventional mother who informed Tay: "I think it's Just fine for you to work on your Ph.D.; but don't let anything interfere with your femininity, my dear." (as if anything could steal from Tay her womanly grace and beauty.) "You know," the mother added, "no amount of education can replace a good husband and sweet children." But the hardest for Tay to bear was her mother's remark, "There's your friend Millicent. Now, one can't find a better girl alive; and your father says she's already the best teacher in