tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524559718883940272024-02-20T02:23:14.212-08:00 Following FitzgeraldUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger343125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-8243835801390705812023-12-15T11:49:00.001-08:002023-12-15T11:51:34.275-08:00Antibes<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Located west of the Baie des
Anges, Antibes is one of the pearls of the French Riviera in the south of
France. In the 1920s, US novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald took up residence with
his wife Zelda in the Villa Saint-Louis to write his masterpiece "Tender
is the Night". The villa is now a five-star hotel, the Hôtel Belles Rives.
Antibes is also home to a yachting legend: the One Wave, a monohull designed in
1948 and fully restored by its passionate owner. Last but not least, the resort
is a paradise for underwater photographers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEips3OVBn_RYSSOs12JsQ3IzwrG0nwjJLMTUhkdrwr3VRWhMp07FCNDPBw0D7k9U2BKzWe2uyKWzYx1DzdyOJFoauMbPY6iRUqtLtxUGXdIVjBEoZdbnXfrGmtl-JFsItcqq15bF3HYQobguIuiotjGbAApBcHC_niiWP5IonANP-sQw8hZ2tiLi6MOkw/s2188/Picture5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2188" data-original-width="1544" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEips3OVBn_RYSSOs12JsQ3IzwrG0nwjJLMTUhkdrwr3VRWhMp07FCNDPBw0D7k9U2BKzWe2uyKWzYx1DzdyOJFoauMbPY6iRUqtLtxUGXdIVjBEoZdbnXfrGmtl-JFsItcqq15bF3HYQobguIuiotjGbAApBcHC_niiWP5IonANP-sQw8hZ2tiLi6MOkw/w452-h640/Picture5.jpg" width="452" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-17636639943157932232023-12-15T11:49:00.000-08:002023-12-15T11:49:04.217-08:00The Garden of Allah: The confidential hotel that housed Hollywood’s greatest secrets<p> <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Garden of Allah: The
confidential hotel that housed Hollywood’s greatest secrets<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Poppy Burton<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Mon 11 December 2023 22:15, UK<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">From the late 1920s onwards,
Hollywood‘s biggest stars found brief reprieve from the public eye in a
picturesque hotel nestled quietly between Sunset Boulevard and Laurel Canyon.
Though one of the best-kept secrets among the Hollywood elite, the Garden of
Allah soon became known as a den of iniquity, welcoming the excess of its famed
guests. Actors, writers, directors, and even a president once stopped by. Some
of them stayed for months on end, others only a night, but all revelled in the
parties and privacy it offered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The hotel’s free-wheeling embrace
of debauchery might be best summed up in its embrace of resident “jazzy baby”
Clara Bow. Said to be the inspiration behind Babylon’s Nellie LaRoy, Bow was
pegged as the next “it girl” of the Flapper era – until her wild antics and
sexuality began to dominate headlines. Cruel reporters cooked up stories of
incest and bestiality, all untrue, but in the court of public opinion, they may
as well have been.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">42.9K<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Francis Ford Coppola's brief
message about love<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Inside the confines of the
Garden, however, she was free of judgement – and was said to have enjoyed many
a cocktail hour, occasionally diving into the pool, martini in hand and donning
a full-length gown. The reason Bow could comfortably let loose was the hotel
had discreet security and traded on its ability to put guests at ease – away
from prying eyes. Management understood their esteemed guests needed a place to
do so, and even more crucially – they didn’t ask questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nobody batted an eye when F.
Scott Fitzgerald crawled on his knees from his bungalow to the front desk after
a Scotch binge. They did, however, ask if calling a doctor might be wise. “No
doctor,” he was said to have cried. “Just get me somewhere I can die in peace!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Fitzgerald had been spending
months holed up in one of the Garden’s 25 rental bungalows, writing off the
$400 charge as a necessary working expense. Struggling with the pressures of
Hollywood writing – not to mention mounting debts and alcoholism, he took off
to the Garden for a creative rebalance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He famously wrote himself a
postcard while staying there: “Dear Scott – How are you?” he asked himself.
“Have been meaning to come in and see you. I have [been] living at the Garden
of Allah. Yours, Scott Fitzgerald.” His biographer later wrote a book about the
Garden, its secret cultural importance making itself known in the writers it
sheltered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It’s dazzling that while we can
point to places like the Stork Club and the Chateau Marmont as hotbeds of Old
Hollywood glamour, The Garden of Allah flew somewhat under the radar. Attended
by Frank Sinatra and Ronald Reagan in its time, maybe it’s the best testament
to it being Hollywood’s best-kept secret.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-41175686297672026892023-12-15T11:48:00.000-08:002023-12-15T11:48:16.802-08:00 Tales of Elvis and 'The Great Gatsby': 10 historic buildings in downtown Louisville<p> <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18pt;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Tales of Elvis and 'The Great
Gatsby': 10 historic buildings in downtown Louisville<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Rachel Smith<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Louisville Courier Journal<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">From inspiring F. Scott
Fitzgerald, to rocking with Elvis and even gambling with Al Capone, Louisville
has an interesting tapestry sewn into its downtown streets. While downtown has
seen massive strides of redevelopment, there's also some brick-and-mortar
buildings that have been part of the city's skyline for decades </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‒</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> or even
centuries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Whether you're mining ideas for a
walking tour or just itching to hear about bygone celebrities' local
excursions, here are 10 cultural staples of Louisville's downtown landscape.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Once frequented by raucous
authors and hard-boiled gangsters, the Seelbach Hilton Louisville has been the
ideal of luxury living in Kentucky for over a hundred years. The hotel was
founded by Bavarian-born brothers Louis and Otto Seelbach in 1905, with the
brothers using ornamental touches from around the world - bronze from France,
hardwood from the West Indies, Irish linens and Persian rugs - to bring the
hotel to a level of opulence that would attract visitors en masse.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">During the 1920s, one of those
visitors was Al Capone, who routinely visited the hotel for gambling and
bootlegging. According to the Seelbach's website, Capone's favorite room is
immortalized with a few of his personal touches, such as a large mirror he'd
sent from Chicago. That room also has hidden doorways behind panels the lead
directly into secret passageways.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Seelbach is also widely known
to have served as inspiration behind F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great
Gatbsy."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While training in the army at
Camp Taylor, Fitzgerald is said to have used his weekend passes to visit the
Seelbach to relax and sip on bourbon. He was even allegedly banned from the
hotel at one point due to his behavior after having one drink to many.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">During his visit, Fitzgerald met
George Remus, a gangster that became the model for Jay Gatsby. His experiences
in The Seelbach's elegant rooms inspired Fitzgerald to use the hotel as a model
while writing the classic American novel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The hotel pays homage to
Fitzgerald with Gatsby’s on Fourth, an in-house breakfast spot.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-56842055231825889962023-12-07T09:00:00.000-08:002023-12-07T09:00:33.781-08:00The unforeseen beauty of public domain reworks<p> <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">Revisiting Gatsby [A&C]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">The unforeseen
beauty of public domain reworks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18pt;"> The Brown Daily Herald</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">By AJ Wu<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">December 6, 2023
| 11:16pm EST<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;"> The Great Gatsby entered the public domain
in 2021. The air tasted the same. The clocks chimed no differently. The eyes of
T.J. Eckleburg remained unblinking. But the world as we—those of us exposed to
The Great Gatsby in a high school English class—knew it was forever changed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">Along with its
newfound availability on Project Gutenberg, The Great Gatsby’s release into the
public domain also came with many creative adaptations. During quarantine,
documentary filmmaker Ben Crew embarked on a project to distract himself from
the looming chaos of the global pandemic and the 24/7 news cycle covering “what
was happening in D.C.” He emerged from lockdown with a 104-page script for a
Muppets adaptation of The Great Gatsby. The work—which introduces a magnificent
portrayal of Gatsby from our favorite green frog, as well as Nick Carraway’s
constant internal monologuing confusing his muppet co-stars—brings delicious
charm and extravagant musical numbers to Fitzgerald’s original work. It quickly
picked up a dedicated fanbase, which produced a fan-made poster and a Subreddit
committed to launching the project. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">Gatsby Great
The—the text of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby with the words
rearranged in alphabetical order by artist Ryland Stalder—is another inspired
remix. While it does not make much sense narratively, it does shed light on the
novel’s preoccupations—like a giant word cloud, it gets us both a little
farther away from the plot and closer to the core of the novel and how it makes
us feel and what it inspires us to think about. The alphabetical reading
provides new and uncanny strings of words such as “dazed dazzling dead” and
“loneliness, lonely lonely Long.” When stripped away of all narrative context,
these amusing but thought-provoking strings retain and amplify the emotional
core of The Great Gatsby. They describe in a way different from other formats
the idea that extravagance is ephemeral and how loneliness becomes unbearably
long. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">F. Scott
Fitzgerald was buried in Rockville, Maryland, where I grew up. His grave is
almost visible from the window of my tenth-grade English classroom. When
Fitzgerald died at 44, having suffered from alcoholism and a series of three
heart attacks, his books were all out of print and he believed himself fated to
fade into literary obscurity. He requested “the cheapest funeral” possible and
was buried where his father had lived—in Rockville, allegedly because he had
made no plans to be buried anywhere else. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">While Fitzgerald
may have been mostly apathetic about his relationship with Rockville, Rockville
is decidedly more eager to claim Fitzgerald. Every fall, my hometown hosts the
F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival, a three- to four-day event. The festival
offers writing workshops and talks on Fitzgerald scholarship, celebrates
literary guests of honor—past honorees include Richard Powers and Barbara
Kingsolver—and winners of various sponsored short story contests read from
their stories.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">Almost
immediately after Gatsby’s copyright was lifted, a podcast I’ve been a
long-time fan of, Planet Money, released a four-hour episode consisting of a
full reading of the novel by their cast of journalists and economists. The
episode is simply captioned: “All of it.” I listened, bemused but appreciative
of an easily accessible audiobook version. Other forthcoming adaptations of the
text include a Broadway musical headed by Florence Welch of Florence + the
Machine and a graphic novel first published in Australia in 2007 and now
finally releasable in the US over a decade later. Following predecessors such
as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the novel has also been turned into The
Great Gatsby Undead—a ghoulish retelling by Kristen Briggs where Gatsby is a
vampire. One of my personal favorites is The Great Gatsby: But Nick Has
Scoliosis, which is The Great Gatsby verbatim except for a sentence added in
haphazardly every chapter that references Nick having scoliosis. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">Not all
adaptations, however, are created equal. Nick, a prequel by Michael Farris
Smith that fabricates a backstory for the novel’s least interesting character,
Nick Carraway, misses the mark entirely on why The Great Gatsby is compelling
to begin with. It’s a perfectly fine novel about a World War I soldier, his
struggle with PTSD, and a tragic love affair, but I can’t help wondering what
the point of its attachment to Gatsby is other than as a substitute for
developing characters and stories compelling enough for people to care about on
their own. A YA author I can’t stand and have had a private vendetta against
since middle school recently released a queer retelling of The Great Gatsby
that focuses on a romance between Nick and Gatsby. I was moderately put off and
complained to a friend, “You can just write YA! You can just write that! It
doesn’t need to be about Nick and Gatsby.” I like a good queer romance but
found it a poorly executed choice tonally that stripped away a lot of the
weight of the original novel’s messaging about the American Dream, unrequited
love, and temporality. It doesn’t add to Gatsby in any direction except
laterally. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">Muppet Gatsby
and Scoliosis Gatsby don’t take themselves nearly as seriously, which may be
why I find them so enjoyable while reading other Gatsby retellings makes me
wonder if attempting to earnestly follow Fitzgerald is a doomed effort.
Imitations of Gatsby that clearly wish to repackage the themes of the original
but inevitably fall short only invite comparison to the original novel in a way
that is unhelpful and uncharitable to the authors of these retellings. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">Halfway through
The Great Gatsby, Nick warns Gatsby, “You can’t repeat the past.” To which
Gatsby responds incredulously, “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!”
The futility of repeating the past (and rewriting what’s already been written)
may be a message that has evaded some Gatsby re-tellers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">I think some of
my hesitation to accept certain self-serious Gatsby retellings stems from a
reluctance to fully recognize them as substantial and separate them from the
likes of fanfiction relegated to AO3 and FanFiction.net. I have, however, had
reason to re-evaluate this outlook on a few occasions. One of my more eccentric
English teachers was notorious for publishing an overwhelming amount of
Shakespeare fanfiction, including a modern Macbeth retelling about two teens,
Mackenzie and Beth (their ship name is Macbeth). Sitting in her classes on how
stories change in relation to their time and place (and hearing about her
heated argument with her publisher about whether Ophelia’s skirt should be
longer on the cover of her YA Hamlet novel) was one of the first times I
considered that both thematically compliant as well as wildly divergent
retellings of classic stories could have merit on their own.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">Adaptations of
other widely read classics by Shakespeare and Jane Austen are now prevalent to
the point that some of the most iconic examples—10 Things I Hate About You,
Clueless, West Side Story—have escaped the orbit of the original and left their
own lasting cultural impacts. I can only anticipate that as more creators take
advantage of The Great Gatsby’s availability, the quality of Gatsby retellings
will also continue to stretch towards similar heights. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes;">Ultimately,
there’s something pretty lovely about caring about stories and endeavoring to
create upon their foundations. The original Jay Gatsby might’ve died with the
Roaring Twenties, but Kermit-as-Gatsby (and his numerous brethren) will carry
on and change with the times to be what we may or may not need them to be.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-79649117864735547132023-12-03T06:13:00.000-08:002023-12-03T06:13:00.307-08:00When Publishing F. Scott Fitzgerald is the Family Business<p> <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Charles Scribner III on Three
Generations in the Book Business<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">By Charles Scribner III<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">November 28, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life and career
bounced between success and setbacks like the alternating current of major and
minor keys in a Mozart symphony. He was born in 1896, the brink of a new
century. Just as his life bridged two centuries, so does his work have a
Janus-like aspect, looking back to the Romantic lyricism and epic dreams of
nineteenth-century America and forward to the syncopated jazz of the twentieth.
“My whole theory of writing,” he said, “I can sum up in one sentence. An author
ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next,
and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">How magnificently, if posthumously, he
fulfilled that ideal. His fleeting literary fortunes—a dozen years of
commercial and literary success followed by distractions and
disappointments—ended in 1940 with a fatal heart attack at the age of
forty-four. He was then hard at work on The Last Tycoon, the Hollywood novel he
hoped would restore his faded reputation. At the time of his death his books
were not, as is so often claimed, out of print with Scribners, his publisher.
The truth is even sadder: They were all in stock at our warehouse and listed in
our catalog, but no one was buying them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">When Fitzgerald’s daughter, Scottie,
first approached the Princeton University Library and offered to donate her
late father’s papers she was turned down. It couldn’t be the repository, the
librarian said, for every failed alumnus author’s papers. Fortunately she gave
them a second chance, several years later, to reconsider.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Today those archives are the most
avidly consulted holdings of the library by scholars who come there, as if on
pilgrimage, from all over the world. More copies of Fitzgerald’s books are now
sold each fortnight than the entire cumulative sale in his lifetime. His novels
and stories are studied in high schools and colleges across the country—indeed
around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I was the fourth Charles to be
involved in publishing his works ever since my great-grandfather signed him up
at the prodding of his young editor of genius Max Perkins in 1919. But three
generations and namesakes later (ours is a redundant family) I am struck by the
realization that mine was the first generation—of no doubt as many to come—to
have been introduced to this author’s work in a classroom.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">My grandfather, Fitzgerald’s
contemporary and friend as well as publisher, died on the eve of the critical
reappraisal and the ensuing revival of his works that gained momentum in the
1950s and has continued in full force down to the present. It was my father who
presided over that literary apotheosis unprecedented in American letters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">There is something magical about
Fitzgerald. Much has been written—and dramatized—about the Jazz Age personas of
Scott and Zelda. But the real magic lies embedded in the prose, and reveals
itself in his amazing range and versatility. Each novel or story partakes of
its creator’s poetic imagination, his dramatic vision, his painstaking (if
virtuoso and seemingly effortless) craftsmanship. Each bears Fitzgerald’s
hallmark: the indelible stamp of grace. He is my literary candidate to stand
beside the demigods Bernini, Rubens, and Mozart as artists of divine
transfigurations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The key to Fitzgerald’s enduring
enchantment lies, I submit, in the power of his romantic imagination to
transfigure his characters and settings—as well as in the very shape and sound
of his prose. There is a sacramental quality, one that did not wane along with
formal observance of his Roman Catholic faith. I say “sacramental” because
Fitzgerald’s words transform their external geography as thoroughly as the
realm within. The ultimate effect, once the initial reverberations of imagery
and language have subsided, transcends the bounds of fiction. I can testify
from firsthand experience.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">At the time of his death his books
were not, as is so often claimed, out of print with Scribners, his publisher.
The truth is even sadder: They were all in stock at our warehouse and listed in
our catalog, but no one was buying them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">From his earliest days, Scott wanted
nothing more than to be a writer: “The first help I ever had in writing was
from my father, who read an utterly imitative Sherlock Holmes story of mine and
pretended to like it.” It was his first appearance in print, at age thirteen.
Here’s the chilling dénouement (which proves that writers are made, not born):<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">“I forgot Mrs. Raymond,” screamed
Syrel, “where is she?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">“She is out of your power forever,”
said the young man.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Syrel brushed past him and, with Smidy
and I following, burst open the door of the room at the head of the stairs. We
rushed in. On the floor lay a woman, and as soon as I touched her heart I knew
she was beyond the doctor’s skill.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">“She has taken poison,” I said. Syrel
looked around; the young man had gone. And we stood there aghast in the
presence of death.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">No surprise that he next took to
writing plays, one a summer, for a local dramatics group. At Princeton, he
wrote musical comedies for the Triangle Club before he flunked out (chemistry
was the culprit), joined the army, and wrote his first novel, This Side of
Paradise, which was eventually adapted to the stage as a musical under the
title The Underclassman.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">“Start out with an individual and you
find that you have created a type—start out with a type and you find that you
have created nothing.” Fitzgerald started out with himself—a good choice. “A
writer wastes nothing,” he said, and he proved it by mining his early years at
St. Paul and Princeton to forge his early stories, poems, and dramatic skits
into that witty autobiographical novel that launched his fame.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Fitzgerald’s first novel was turned
down twice by my great-grandfather. But he refused to give up. Years later
writing to his daughter, Fitzgerald offered the following advice: “Don’t be a
bit discouraged about your story not being tops. . . . Nobody became a writer
just by wanting to be one. If you have anything to say, anything you feel
nobody has ever said before, you have got to feel it so desperately that you
will find some way to say it that nobody has ever found before.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">A couple of years later, he added some
more technical advice: “All fine prose is based on the verbs carrying the
sentences. They make sentences move.” Unlike his brisk prose, I did not move; I
stayed on at Princeton for two more degrees, leaving the university only when
there were no more to be had, but not before I had the pleasure of teaching
undergraduates. Since my field was art history, the next transition—into the
family publishing business—was abrupt, but once again facilitated by
Fitzgerald.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Ensconced at Max Perkins’s old desk at
Scribners (which I was given because the senior editor complained that it ran
her stockings) I dreamed up as my first book project in 1975 a revival of
Fitzgerald’s obscure and star-crossed play The Vegetable; or from President to
postman, which featured a presidential impeachment too true to be good: the
play had opened—and closed—in 1922 at Nixon’s Apollo Theater in Atlantic City.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">My post-Watergate project not only
justified repeated revisits to the Princeton University Library for research in
the Scribner and Fitzgerald archives—the mecca for Fitzgerald scholars—but,
more important, brought me into a happy working relationship with his daughter,
Scottie. The play was republished during the election year of 1976 and featured
as a presidential address a confection of mixed metaphors.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Fitzgerald considered his year and a
half spent on The Vegetable a complete waste, but I disagree, for he followed
it with a new novel written with all the economy and tight structure of a
successful play—The Great Gatsby. Both The Vegetable and Gatsby shared the
theme of the American Dream (first as a spoof for a comedy, finally as the
leitmotif of a lyric novel). I don’t think there has ever been a more elusive,
mysterious, intriguing character than Gatsby. He’s pure fiction—and pure
Fitzgerald: the hopeful, romantic outsider looking in.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">He smiled understandingly—much more
than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal
reassurance in it that you may come across four or five times in life. It
faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then
concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood
you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would
like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the
impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Who cares how James Gatz became Jay
Gatsby, bootlegger or worse? Who would not want to be in such a presence? But
it was years later when I met President Clinton that those sentences came to
life and recorded my experience of mortal, if presidential, charisma that I
could never have imagined outside the bounds of fiction. Clinton made Gatsby
real. Or perhaps Gatsby prefigured Clinton?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Fitzgerald wanted his book to be a
“consciously artistic achievement. . . . I want to write something
new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned”—
and he succeeded in spades. He later said that what he cut out of it, “both
physically and emotionally, would make another novel.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">In his first letter to Perkins—summer
of 1922—about his “new” novel, Fitzgerald wrote that it would “concern less
superlative beauties than I run to usually” and “would center on a smaller
period of time.” He was to change the period and locale as he began writing (it
was originally set in the Midwest and New York around 1885), but he never
abandoned his determination to limit the time frame and thus give a sharper
focus to his plot and characters than he had done in his earlier two novels.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">And this, I believe, was the result of
his failed attempt at being a Broadway playwright. The special demands imposed
by a play—a short work defined by acts and scenes, limited in time and
setting—proved an ideal exercise in literary craftsmanship, which the young
novelist sharpened through the long series of revisions while the play was in
rehearsal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">From Fitzgerald’s long lost first
draft of 1923 only a fragment survives in the form of the short story
“Absolution” and two handwritten pages I discovered over four decades ago in a
rare bookshop here in New York. They reveal that Fitzgerald had already settled
on the essential plot and locale of the final version, but the story was told
in the third person. The next year he wrote to Perkins that he was now working
on a “new angle.” I’m sure he meant through the eyes of his inspired narrator
Nick Carraway. (It’s worth streaming the famous Robert Redford film just to
hear Sam Waterston tell the story—a generation before his fame in Law &
Order.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">While writing an introduction to a new
1979 paperback edition of Gatsby, I decided to revive the original jacket—it is
now an icon of the Jazz Age. Twenty years later it was enlarged, at my
suggestion, into a huge poster for John Harbison’s opera The Great Gatsby at
the Met. When Matthew Bruccoli discovered Cugat’s preliminary sketches for the
Gatsby dust jacket in a country shop, serendipity allowed me at last to merge
art history and literature. I’m a Gemini. For this once, thanks to Fitzgerald,
my dual careers came into sync.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Francis Cugat is not a household name.
Born in Spain on my birthday in 1893, he died in Connecticut on my dad’s
birthday in 1981. He was a set designer for Douglas Fairbanks in Hollywood and
decades later a consultant to Technicolor on films including The Quiet Man and
The Cain Mutiny. He is better known as the brother of bandleader Xavier Cugat.
He designed only one jacket for Scribners, and did not continue in that line of
work. Yet his painting is the most celebrated—and widely disseminated— jacket art
in twentieth-century American literature, and perhaps of all time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">After decades of oblivion, and several
million copies later, like the novel it embellishes, this Art Deco tour de
force has established itself as a classic of graphic art. At the same time, it
represents a unique form of “collaboration” between author and jacket artist.
Under normal circumstances, the artist illustrates a scene or motif conceived
by the author; he lifts, as it were, his image from a page of the book. In this
instance, however, the artist’s image preceded the finished manuscript and Fitzgerald
actually maintained that he had “written it into” his book.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Cugat’s small masterpiece is not
illustrative, but symbolic, iconic. The sad, hypnotic, heavily outlined eyes of
a woman beam like headlights through a cobalt night sky. Below, on earth,
brightly colored lights blaze before a metropolitan skyline. Cugat’s carnival
imagery is especially intriguing in view of Fitzgerald’s pervasive use of light
motifs throughout his novel, specifically in metaphors for the latter-day
Trimalchio, whose parties were illuminated by “enough colored lights to make a
Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden.” Nick sees “the whole corner of the
peninsula . . . blazing with light” from Gatsby’s house, “lit from tower to
cellar.” When he tells Gatsby that his place “looks like the World’s Fair,”
Gatsby proposes that they “go to Coney Island.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Fitzgerald had already introduced this
symbolism in his story “Absolution,” originally intended as a prologue to the
novel. At the end of the story, a priest encourages the boy who eventually
developed into Jay Gatsby to go see an amusement park, “a thing like a fair
only much more glittering” with “a big wheel made of lights turning in the
air.” But “don’t get too close,” he cautions, “because if you do you’ll only
feel the heat and the sweat and the life.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Daisy’s face, says Nick, was “sad and
lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth.” In
Cugat’s final painting, her celestial eyes enclose reclining nudes and her
streaming tear is green—like the light “that burns all night” at the end of her
dock, reflected in the water of the sound that separates her from Gatsby. What
Fitzgerald drew directly from Cugat’s art and “wrote into” the novel must
ultimately remain an open question, though I believe the best candidate is not
the famous billboard eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg but rather Nick’s image of
Daisy, at the end of chapter 4, as “the girl whose disembodied face floated
along the dark cornices and blinding signs” of New York at night.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The reflected lights and ghosts of
Gatsby—whether votive or festive—still transfigure Gatsby’s Island, where my
family and I were transplanted in the mid-1980s after several generations on
the mainland side of the Hudson River. From our new vantage point, I cannot
look out over the sound without smiling at Fitzgerald’s description: “the most
domesticated body of saltwater in the western hemisphere, the great wet
barnyard of Long Island Sound.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">There is no longer a dock at the beach
in Lattingtown, and, as the crow flies, we are in fact several miles east of
East Egg. But occasionally I catch a glimpse of a green light reflected in the
water, and each time I drive through the Valley of Ashes (now the site of the
Citi Field stadium) and approach the twinkling Manhattan skyline, I feel very
much at home. The novel has made me a native.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">One wise college professor told us
that the ultimate function of art is to reconcile us to life. Fitzgerald’s
prose is life enhancing; its evocative power endures. That is why I have no
doubt he should be beaming still—from the other side of Paradise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">__________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Excerpted from Scribners: Five
Generations in Publishing by Charles Scribner III. Copyright © 2023. Available
from Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot, a division of Rowman &
Littlefield Publishing Group.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-11804745610296673392022-02-09T08:10:00.000-08:002022-02-09T08:10:02.019-08:00<p> <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The House That Inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald's Daisy Buchanan
Turns the Page<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For Kingdom Come Farm, a new chapter is just beginning.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Just the mention of F. Scott Fitzgerald conjures images of
Jazz Age romps through the French Riviera, Long Island’s Gold Coast, or Roaring
’20s Manhattan. Yet it was Lake Forest, Illinois, a suburb just north of
Chicago, that the writer considered the most glamorous place in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was one girl who made the town wondrous for him. Ginevra
King, the eldest daughter of stockbroker Charles Garfield King, was the It girl
of Lake Forest. Known for her dark, curly hair and deep voice, Ginevra was part
of a group of debutantes called the “Big Four” that included the golfer Edith
Cummings, one of America’s first superstar female athletes. Ginevra was
definitely out of Fitzgerald’s league.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The sprawling 1906 home has been lovingly restored by its new
owners, but it hasn’t lost many Jazz Age touches that Fitzgerald might
recognize.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The pair had a short relationship, meeting first at a party in
Fitzgerald’s hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1915. They wrote letters to
each other, and Fitzgerald visited King at her home, but within two years the
relationship was over. In 1918, King would marry the son of a banker (and grace
the cover of Town & Country). Fitzgerald would go on to write some of the
most famous stories in American literature. Still, whether it was Isabelle
Borgé in This Side of Paradise, his debut novel, or Daisy Buchanan in Gatsby,
King was the inspiration for almost all of Fitzgerald’s fictional women. And
Lake Forest would forever stay in his mind as more than a place, as an ideal.
Kingdom Come Farm, the sprawling mansion built for the Kings in 1906 by Howard
Van Doren Shaw, served as the heart of the writer’s life in this period, and
today it’s once again the grand house it used to be.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Here’s the room where the party would make their way out to
the lawn,” says Jeanette Hodgkinson, pushing open doors that lead to the back
yard of the home she and her husband Danny moved into in 2019. That’s likely
where, if the legend is true, Charles King told Fitzgerald that “poor boys
shouldn’t think of marrying rich girls.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But 1915 was a long time ago. Over the years the home’s luster
faded; it changed hands repeatedly and was remodeled in Colonial Revival style
with Art Deco touches in 1938. It was updated again in the mid-’50s, but after
that, nothing. Paint chipped, mold set in, a statue in the pool made by the
architect’s daughter, Sylvia Shaw Judson, went missing. “There was a buck
living in the back yard,” Danny says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When the couple first visited the home, it was just months
away from demolition. The Hodgkinsons bought Kingdom Come Farm and 1.4 acres,
including an English garden, in the fall of 2018 for less than $700,000—a
significantly lower price than years earlier, when the house and five acres of
land were listed for more than $6 million.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You could always tell through his fiction where Fitzgerald had
been. His time in France influenced Tender Is the Night, and, of course, Long
Island’s toniest towns served as the setting for The Great Gatsby. But, judging
from Fitzgerald’s written works, Lake Forest was a forgotten chapter in his
life. That might explain why the home’s importance has been overlooked. Even
the Hodgkinsons were initially unaware of the connection. “It just felt special,”
Jeanette says.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgBcDTfXvZVQuLvpcToYnQyBdJLaIPPjitPImjYtNfLYXfqzsoUlV1ws8NEttFqesgKwjbj5HaWX0LxhaNBwkgMMDSqzl013_U2jbH7veOgfNMf5w18STcsnB_3QdP9i-wLAgMvIY0fn_Lb68q7FRmFmv1Ep42n4QwwTTlzYquDus_UMFRY-b8Pqb4=s640" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="443" data-original-width="640" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgBcDTfXvZVQuLvpcToYnQyBdJLaIPPjitPImjYtNfLYXfqzsoUlV1ws8NEttFqesgKwjbj5HaWX0LxhaNBwkgMMDSqzl013_U2jbH7veOgfNMf5w18STcsnB_3QdP9i-wLAgMvIY0fn_Lb68q7FRmFmv1Ep42n4QwwTTlzYquDus_UMFRY-b8Pqb4=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEi7DthTd7jJ6tpP0R_kBB80MddGiOB53Z3vT3wbWGwQHD5us6jjY2kFnU351JFc2Gf75vZ0wGk6o8GO3JBwUy5QSROpayp35b_4IjMLmK1cOU_D2miuIhmA9RHiLDpowrFBI_iwg1bteH4_u-R58ZxKp_jKz_kKsgaYLap6L1A_0Y_yseTCl9TC8=s600" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEi7DthTd7jJ6tpP0R_kBB80MddGiOB53Z3vT3wbWGwQHD5us6jjY2kFnU351JFc2Gf75vZ0wGk6o8GO3JBwUy5QSROpayp35b_4IjMLmK1cOU_D2miuIhmA9RHiLDpowrFBI_iwg1bteH4_u-R58ZxKp_jKz_kKsgaYLap6L1A_0Y_yseTCl9TC8=s320" width="256" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><o:p></o:p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-245659710054521912021-10-07T15:09:00.004-07:002021-10-07T15:09:37.540-07:00 Condo at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Birthplace Listed for $350K<p><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Live out your roaring '20s dream with
modern comfort.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">by Corinne Stremmel <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">From birth to age two, literary
icon, F. Scott Fitzgerald lived on the second floor of a picturesque Victorian
building nestled on the 400 block of Laurel Avenue in St. Paul. And now, you
could too. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Listed at $350,000, this
Putnam-style condo is just one of three Fitzgerald landmarks in St. Paul. While
many think of Fitzgerald living a glitzy booze-fueled lifestyle in New York,
the Jazz Age author grew up as a Midwestern boy attending St. Paul Academy
where he wrote his first story at age thirteen in the school’s newspaper. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He lived with his parents just
five blocks east of his birthplace on 286-294 Laurel Terrace and famously lived
at 599 Summit Ave where he wrote This Side of Paradise in the summer of 1919.
Fitzgerald’s daughter Scottie was born not long after in 1921 in St. Paul. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">With plenty of history to back
this listing, the owner Charlie Brokaw said he’s needed to do minimal upkeep
and the building has been well maintained over the years. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Situated in Ramsey Hill,
residents can enjoy the quiet, historic neighborhood while being close to
plenty of restaurants and shopping with Selby Avenue just two blocks away. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Despite being built in 1892, the
home maintains a chic appearance with exposed brick interiors, a fully updated
kitchen, in-unit laundry, and plenty of storage. Plus a plaque outside the
building notes its historical significance as Fitzgerald’s birthplace, so
expect a few Fitzgerald fans to occasionally visit to read the plaque and take
a few pictures. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The building has two addresses,
479 for units on the east side of the hallway and Fitzgerald’s former address,
481 Laurel Ave for the units on the west.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-59773686785224713912021-07-18T14:40:00.003-07:002021-07-18T14:40:54.691-07:00The Great Gatsby First Edition: Sold for $200,000 at Cannes Dinner at amfAR<p> <span style="background-color: #fbfbfb; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Great Gatsby First Edition: Sold for $200,000 at Cannes Dinner at amfAR<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">By<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Shantanu Parmar<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Saturday,
17 July 2021, 09:33 EDT<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We
have all heard about the book called as The Great Gatsby. It is a legendary
novel by a legendary author F. Scott Fitzgerald. It seems that recently the
first edition of the book was sold at the Cannes Dinner auction for a whopping
$200,000. So, how did this come to happen?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Well,
the entire event happened at the Cannes Dinner. This event marks the end of the
Cannes film festival. It is filled with dinner where rich people sit and
bidding happens after a fashion show. This
is where they bid on things such as dresses made by amazing designers such as
Versace, Balenciaga and Givenchy. In the previous auction which coulnd not take
place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The number were not that good and hence the
pressure was felt this time to make sure that this was a successful event.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Before
we move to the deal that we are talking about, let us find out about why the
importance of Cannes amfAR dinner has been falling. This is because of a
scandal that had allegedly taken place. The previous chairman was accused was
said to have funnelled about $600,000 to one Mr. Harvey Weinstein. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
theme of the night was The Great Gatsby. Hence to keep in light with the theme
Sharon Stone sought to auction off the first edition of the book. But, this was
not any first edition. It was the first edition which was signed by two of the
protagonists of the movie adaptation. Yes, you heard that right, it was signed
by Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Redford.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Not
only this, it also came with some perks of itself. It featured the cufflinks
that these two men had worn. Moreover, it also featured a lunch with Ms. Sto</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-89399566192470817242020-08-30T09:54:00.000-07:002020-08-30T09:54:03.207-07:00Great Gatsby is back in fashion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 11.25pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">No film makes you ache for summer more than </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-124297-the-great-gatsby.do" title="More on The Great Gatsby..."><i><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">The Great Gatsby</span></i></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">. In Newport, Rhode Island, where I spent my summers growing up, Gatsby's legacy is alive and well. Those huge white palaces (or 'cottages', as they're known locally) are still there, including Rosecliff, which doubled as Gatsby's house for the 1974 film. Tennis 'whites' are still required if you're on court, and the cocktails and the socialising are as potent as they ever were.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 11.25pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">My affection for the book began when I first read it at 16, and despite an instant dislike for Daisy, my selfish, careless namesake, I chose it as the theme for my debutante coming-out party (yes, they still exist) the following summer. It was as big as any wedding extravaganza, beginning with the invitations, which came in boxes with colourful boas for the girls and sparkly bow ties for the boys. Our driveway was lined with a collection of 1920s Studebakers, Ford Model Ts and Chrysler Imperials, and guests were offered a glass of champagne to sip as they made their way past the cars to the party. My parents invited 150 people for a seated dinner at our house, which was decorated with enormous stands of black and white flowers, sparklers and pearls. A further 250 came to dance under a full moon to two jazz bands; there were even cigarette girls and a doughnut-making machine. Most of my friends stayed reasonably in control, except for my cousin Gigi, who got so 'tired and emotional' that she fell into the band and had to spend the night in the 'sleeping tent' that my parents had thoughtfully erected for just such an eventuality. Prohibition was long gone but we were still underage and fortified ourselves with surreptitious shots of vodka and cigarettes. The shots made me tipsy but really intoxicating was the knowledge that I had all the best parts of my life in front of me. I felt like Nick Carraway at the start of the story: 'It had been a golden afternoon… I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.'</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 11.25pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">First published in 1925, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-25121-scott-fitzgerald.do" title="More on Scott Fitzgerald..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">F Scott Fitzgerald</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">'s novel, which encapsulates the aimlessness hidden behind a smokescreen of opulence that was the roaring Twenties, only became truly popular after his death in 1940. But still it was not until the 1974 film, starring </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-10469-robert-redford.do" title="More on Robert Redford..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Robert Redford</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-4472-mia-farrow.do" title="More on Mia Farrow..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Mia Farrow</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> and Sam Waterston, that the visual language of Gatsby and the term 'Gatsbyesque' came into existence. People are never more intrigued by the tale than in times of financial strife, when the excesses of the past become so rose-tinted. The film launched during the throes of a major recession, the oil crisis of 1973 was choking the </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-229-united-states.do" title="More on United States..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">USA</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> and inflation had hit an all-time high. Now, with the world desperately clambering out of a global recession and oil prices soaring again, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-10767-baz-luhrmann.do" title="More on Baz Luhrmann..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Baz Luhrmann</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, the man behind <i>Moulin Rouge</i>, is helming a lavish 3D remake starring </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-12149-carey-mulligan.do" title="More on Carey Mulligan..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Carey Mulligan</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-1131-leonardo-dicaprio.do" title="More on Leonardo DiCaprio..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Leonardo DiCaprio</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-3337-hayley-atwell.do" title="More on Hayley Atwell..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Hayley Atwell</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-12025-tobey-maguire.do" title="More on Tobey Maguire..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Tobey Maguire</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">. Luhrmann certainly sees the similarities between the rise and fall of Gatsby and our recent economic troubles, and considers it a good way to teach us a lesson: 'If you tell people, "You've been drunk on money," they're not going to want to see it. But if you reflect that mirror on another time, they're willing to.' </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 11.25pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Designers have consistently used <i>Gatsby</i> as a reference point. This season once again there are languid silk pyjamas at Rochas, just made for a sultry night spent sipping gin-spiked lemonade, and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-2931-chanel-sa.do" title="More on Chanel SA..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Chanel</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> has black and white numbers that are perfect to slip into after a late game of tennis. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-5082-stella-mccartney.do" title="More on Stella McCartney..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Stella McCartney</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> has given girls Gatsby's three-piece white suits, while </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-13154-roksanda-ilincic.do" title="More on Roksanda Ilincic..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Roksanda Ilincic</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> tapped Daisy herself, wrapping her models in layers and layers of romantic chiffon. Phillip Lim has a turquoise tunic dress with a jaunty collar, perfectly suited to the tomboyish athlete Jordan Baker, and Erdem's floaty floral dresses in vibrant greens and yellows on white are just the thing for a spot of croquet. <br />
<br />
It's not just designers and directors who have a thing for <i>Gatsby</i>. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-5564-sigourney-weaver.do" title="More on Sigourney Weaver..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Sigourney Weaver</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> took her first name from the book: 'An act of desperation because I didn't like being called Susie.' </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-12219-marc-jacobs.do" title="More on Marc Jacobs..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Marc Jacobs</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> is so obsessed that 'both my dog and my perfume are named after my favourite literary character Daisy Buchanan'. Even </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-12823-hugh-hefner.do" title="More on Hugh Hefner..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Hugh Hefner</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, still a fast-living playboy in his eighties, says it's his favourite novel, and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-1639-brad-pitt.do" title="More on Brad Pitt..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Brad Pitt</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-788-david-beckham.do" title="More on David Beckham..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">David Beckham</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> have aped Gatsby's style for the red carpet. For die-hard fans, there is now an online game where you can go on your own hunt for Gatsby at his party, dodging menacing waiters, drunks throwing bottles, and flappers doing the </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-14499-charleston.do" title="More on Charleston..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Charleston</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, winning points by downing Martinis along the way. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 11.25pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But there is one famous face who loves Fitzgerald so much that at times she seems like the reincarnation of Zelda herself. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-129-kate-moss.do" title="More on Kate Moss..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Kate Moss</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> is so obsessed with the legend of the Fitzgeralds that her long-suffering fiancé </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-22925-jamie-hince.do" title="More on Jamie Hince..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Jamie Hince</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> tried desperately to track down Zelda's diamond engagement ring with which to propose to her. He only managed a copy, but what could be more perfect for the girl who once confided that she is obsessed by Gatsby (</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-5180-marianne-faithfull.do" title="More on Marianne Faithfull..."><span style="color: #06267b; text-decoration: none;">Marianne Faithfull</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> introduced her to the book) despite its unhappy ending: 'I know,' she said. 'But it was the whole lifestyle, the whole thing.' And who can forget her extravagant <i>Beautiful and Damned</i>-themed 30th birthday party at Claridge's a few years ago? The evening allegedly descended into the kind of decadence not seen since Fitzgerald's day; Moss, a vision in a blue sequined dress, with smouldering eyes and curly golden tresses, had struck the perfect note of the Lost Generation's tragic glamour. <br />
<br />
Now once again summer is just around the corner and with it comes that perpetual promise of a glittering Gatsby- esque future for us all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-29638419758699811282020-08-30T09:53:00.000-07:002020-08-30T09:53:51.416-07:00Photos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-23y8hNtFLPQ/TjRc075bk_I/AAAAAAAAHwM/2hZ2Ukg78_E/s1600/st-paul.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-23y8hNtFLPQ/TjRc075bk_I/AAAAAAAAHwM/2hZ2Ukg78_E/s320/st-paul.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SjFgC2IvzHk/TjRc24Cgs-I/AAAAAAAAHwQ/fnd2pUlkrOs/s1600/20081116200318.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SjFgC2IvzHk/TjRc24Cgs-I/AAAAAAAAHwQ/fnd2pUlkrOs/s320/20081116200318.jpg" width="280" /></a></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-10755504638922558232020-08-30T08:47:00.002-07:002020-08-30T08:47:55.973-07:00“Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story” <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By
Keith Loria<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If
you’ve read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby” or seen
either the 1974 movie starring Robert Redford or the 2013 remake with Leonardo
DiCaprio as the titular Jay Gatsby, you probably think you know the true story
of who Gatsby was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
a new documentary entitled “Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story” will tell
the real story and answer the question, “Who was the real Jay Gatsby?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
documentary, which will be available on DVD and streaming services on Sept. 1,
also reveals that Fitzgerald’s inspiration for the story’s setting of West Egg
was really Westport and not Long Island as many assumed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
film also acts as a companion piece with the book “Boats Against the Current,”
written by the documentary’s producer, Richard “Deej” Webb Jr.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Presented
by Vision Films and Against The Grain Productions, “Gatsby in Connecticut: The
Untold Story” is directed by Robert Steven Williams and features actor Sam
Waterston, who starred as Nick Carraway in Redford’s version of the movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Sam
is a longtime Connecticut resident and I had a friend who knew him well and
reached out to him and ask if he would take a tour of the Fitzgerald house, and
interestingly enough, he didn’t know anything about the Fitzgeralds in
Westport,” Williams says. “He came down and spent the entire day there because
he was so fascinated by the house.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fairfield’s
own Keir Dullea, who starred as astronaut David Bomwan in “2001: A Space
Odyssey,” narrates the film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Keir
is another local and we have done work together before,” Williams says. “He’s
an icon and people know him for 2001, but he actually played Fitzgerald in a
one-person play off-Broadway in the early ’90s. I was very fortunate both Sam
and Keir gave of their time and they generally found the project fascinating.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
film was inspired by an article written by Barbara Probst Solomon that appeared
in an edition of the New Yorker in 1996, which explored the theory that
Westport was the true inspiration for the locale of the story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Williams’
film shines a brighter light on Probst’s theory, as he attempts to show it’s
true through his research into Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s life and their love
of Westport, looking at the untold story of the Fitzgeralds living in
Connecticut. Bobbie Lanahan, the couple’s granddaughter, appears in the
documentary and she herself is amazed at the findings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I
started with this about seven years ago,” said Williams, who lives in Westport.
“I had just written a novel and I decided to promote the novel by celebrating
the town’s rich cultural history. I did a literary roundtable at the Westport
Historical Society and I had [Richard] present some Fitzgerald stuff.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By
the end, numerous people came up to Williams telling him they had no idea about
any of Fitzgerald’s association with the area and that made him start thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I
called the guy who did the presentation up and told him I wanted to do a short,
three-month project, maybe a 10-minute film for the Historical Society so the
next generation doesn’t forget that the Fitzgeralds even lived here,” Williams
says. “He thought it was a great idea and that’s how we started.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
more Williams researched, the more intrigued he became. By the time he came
across Solomon’s article, and saw the similarities between the Westport houses
and the Gatsby mansion she wrote about, he was convinced the film had to be
more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Along
the way, we uncovered academic secrets and a lawsuit to stop the leading
Fitzgerald scholar from rewriting parts of Gatsby,” Williams says. “Most
important, we were able to bring to life an overlooked period of Scott and
Zelda’s that had a profound impact on their lives including their art, the
novels, their love.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
reason it took seven years was because it took time to build confidence with
the Fitzgerald community to reveal some of their secrets. There was skepticism
among many Gatsby scholars, and some even actively tried to stop the
information from coming out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“It
took a long time for anyone to admit that maybe what Barbara wrote was a
possibility,” Williams says. “It was really important to create trust with the
community and let people finally feel comfortable with sharing things they
didn’t want to actually say.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
movie also has some great music in it, which Williams says reflects
Fitzgerald’s love of jazz.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At
a time when there are a lot of crazy things going on in the world, Williams
feels the film is the perfect escape.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The
opportunity to spend an hour or so in the world of Scott and Zelda is a great
escape,” he says. “You don’t have to be a lover of history or literature. It’s
a really fun ride because it’s such an interesting time. It’s also one of
America’s most beloved novels, something we’ve all read. It’s an incredible
commentary on how hard it is to achieve the American Dream.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Gatsby
in Connecticut: The Untold Story” will be available Sept. 1, on DVD from all
major online retailers and on digital for an SRP of $4.99 to $9.99 from
platforms including iTunes, Vudu, Google Play, Xbox, Amazon, and FandangoNow,
as well as cable affiliates everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-45850597861767785572020-08-30T08:45:00.003-07:002020-08-30T08:45:29.629-07:00 Film claims Westport is the real inspiration for West Egg in ‘The Great Gatsby’<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By
Keith Loria<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If
you’ve read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby” or seen
either the 1974 movie starring Robert Redford or the 2013 remake with Leonardo
DiCaprio as the titular Jay Gatsby, you probably think you know the true story
of who Gatsby was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
a new documentary entitled “Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story” will tell
the real story and answer the question, “Who was the real Jay Gatsby?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
documentary, which will be available on DVD and streaming services on Sept. 1,
also reveals that Fitzgerald’s inspiration for the story’s setting of West Egg
was really Westport and not Long Island as many assumed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
film also acts as a companion piece with the book “Boats Against the Current,”
written by the documentary’s producer, Richard “Deej” Webb Jr.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Presented
by Vision Films and Against The Grain Productions, “Gatsby in Connecticut: The
Untold Story” is directed by Robert Steven Williams and features actor Sam
Waterston, who starred as Nick Carraway in Redford’s version of the movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Sam
is a longtime Connecticut resident and I had a friend who knew him well and
reached out to him and ask if he would take a tour of the Fitzgerald house, and
interestingly enough, he didn’t know anything about the Fitzgeralds in
Westport,” Williams says. “He came down and spent the entire day there because
he was so fascinated by the house.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fairfield’s
own Keir Dullea, who starred as astronaut David Bomwan in “2001: A Space
Odyssey,” narrates the film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Keir
is another local and we have done work together before,” Williams says. “He’s
an icon and people know him for 2001, but he actually played Fitzgerald in a
one-person play off-Broadway in the early ’90s. I was very fortunate both Sam
and Keir gave of their time and they generally found the project fascinating.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
film was inspired by an article written by Barbara Probst Solomon that appeared
in an edition of the New Yorker in 1996, which explored the theory that
Westport was the true inspiration for the locale of the story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Williams’
film shines a brighter light on Probst’s theory, as he attempts to show it’s
true through his research into Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s life and their love
of Westport, looking at the untold story of the Fitzgeralds living in
Connecticut. Bobbie Lanahan, the couple’s granddaughter, appears in the
documentary and she herself is amazed at the findings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I
started with this about seven years ago,” said Williams, who lives in Westport.
“I had just written a novel and I decided to promote the novel by celebrating
the town’s rich cultural history. I did a literary roundtable at the Westport
Historical Society and I had [Richard] present some Fitzgerald stuff.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By
the end, numerous people came up to Williams telling him they had no idea about
any of Fitzgerald’s association with the area and that made him start thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I
called the guy who did the presentation up and told him I wanted to do a short,
three-month project, maybe a 10-minute film for the Historical Society so the
next generation doesn’t forget that the Fitzgeralds even lived here,” Williams
says. “He thought it was a great idea and that’s how we started.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
more Williams researched, the more intrigued he became. By the time he came
across Solomon’s article, and saw the similarities between the Westport houses
and the Gatsby mansion she wrote about, he was convinced the film had to be
more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Along
the way, we uncovered academic secrets and a lawsuit to stop the leading
Fitzgerald scholar from rewriting parts of Gatsby,” Williams says. “Most
important, we were able to bring to life an overlooked period of Scott and
Zelda’s that had a profound impact on their lives including their art, the
novels, their love.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
reason it took seven years was because it took time to build confidence with
the Fitzgerald community to reveal some of their secrets. There was skepticism
among many Gatsby scholars, and some even actively tried to stop the
information from coming out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“It
took a long time for anyone to admit that maybe what Barbara wrote was a
possibility,” Williams says. “It was really important to create trust with the
community and let people finally feel comfortable with sharing things they
didn’t want to actually say.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
movie also has some great music in it, which Williams says reflects
Fitzgerald’s love of jazz.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At
a time when there are a lot of crazy things going on in the world, Williams
feels the film is the perfect escape.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The
opportunity to spend an hour or so in the world of Scott and Zelda is a great
escape,” he says. “You don’t have to be a lover of history or literature. It’s
a really fun ride because it’s such an interesting time. It’s also one of
America’s most beloved novels, something we’ve all read. It’s an incredible
commentary on how hard it is to achieve the American Dream.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Gatsby
in Connecticut: The Untold Story” will be available Sept. 1, on DVD from all
major online retailers and on digital for an SRP of $4.99 to $9.99 from
platforms including iTunes, Vudu, Google Play, Xbox, Amazon, and FandangoNow,
as well as cable affiliates everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-6235083922593800572020-08-30T08:44:00.005-07:002020-08-30T08:44:53.030-07:00The Great Gatsby’ prequel must be approached with caution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By
Noah Keate<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Aug.
28, 2020<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Name
the top 10, even the top five, American novels and F Scott Fitzgerald’s The
Great Gatsby will certainly feature. A tragic tale about love, illusion and the
failure of the American Dream, it’s an iconic piece of work detailing how
individual desires so differ from reality. Featured on American and British
academic courses for decades, the combination of exceptional literary prose,
insightful characters and riveting context make the novel required reading. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Though
numerous film adaptations were made, the text always belonged to Fitzgerald.
The characters were his own and that was how it would always be. Until January
1 2021. With US copyright expiring on that date, the book can be freely adapted
for the first time. Author Michael Farris Smith, according to the Guardian, has
already announced his prequel Nick to be published on January 5 in the US and
February 25 in the UK.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Can
this prequel bring anything extra to the novel? It has a lot to live up to.
Fitzgerald died in 1940; we can never know his opinion about how the characters
developed or the intricacies of their lives before the story began. Given the
original novel was published in 1925, Fitzgerald had ample opportunity to
construct a prequel or sequel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
fear this book will, like many of the film adaptations, incorrectly portray
Nick Carraway<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Farris
Smith already suffers from not knowing what the source author narratively
desired. Similarly, his prose and writing style are likely to be different to
Fitzgerald. This is not to say it will be poor quality but it will certainly be
different. The characters and ideas were created by Fitzgerald, indeed, many
argue that Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan are a reflection of himself and Zelda
Fitzgerald. It is, to say the least, tricky for someone else to match that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
prequel will apparently see Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby,
step ‘“into the spotlight,” with the novel detailing his life before meeting
Jay Gatsby. Is this really necessary? We learn a great amount about Nick’s life
during the main text. Of course, he is an unreliable, selective narrator that
only reveals certain details. But all books do: one of the brilliant things
about Fitzgerald’s prose was his ability to be concise while writing in an
enriched manner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
prequel will also see Nick be “charged with alcohol and heartbreak” and
“flounder” as a result of trench warfare during the First World War. These
initial descriptions by the publishers don’t leave me optimistic. I fear this
book will, like many of the film adaptations, incorrectly portray Nick Carraway.
As the academic Sarah Churchwell argues, Nick is often presented as a “dopey
loser” following the Buchanans around. In reality, Nick is a “sophisticated,
smart and ironic” stockbroker. He is the cool character that others are
desperate to befriend. This prequel suggests it will only highlight his
vulnerabilities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
cynical part of me would suggest publishers are using the financial success of
The Great Gatsby… to promote an extra novel that doesn’t need to be written<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
one redeeming feature of Farris Smith’s prequel promotion is “the decade of
uncertainty” when turning 30 and the contradiction between “what we discover in
life and the abandon of those same discoveries.” These concepts could make a
fascinating book. Why then does it need to be a prequel to The Great Gatsby?
The cynical part of me would suggest publishers are using the financial success
of The Great Gatsby, which has sold over 25 million copies, to promote an extra
novel that doesn’t need to be written. Many novels are classics because they
work as set pieces for their time, rather than constantly facing new
adaptations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When
the novel is released, it won’t be at the top of my ‘to be read’ list. My
intense A-level studies meant my focus turned only to stories within the novel
rather than the experiences they could have led. While fan fiction is always
written, deep academic analysis of The Great Gatsby has always turned to the
main story. This prequel somewhat reminds me of Go Set a Watchman, the sequel
to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Whether she gave consent to its publication
was always unclear, but the sequel itself was of no comparison to the groundbreaking
classic. While only publication day will reveal the truth, I fear Farris
Smith’s The Great Gatsby prequel could follow the same fate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-77556823773740130982020-08-30T08:44:00.002-07:002020-08-30T08:44:21.479-07:00Rolls Royce featured in ‘The Great Gatsby’ is up for sale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By
Daily News staff<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Posted
Aug 28, 2020 at 9:30 AM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
yellow Rolls Royce featured in the 1974 film “The Great Gasby” that was filmed
in Newport is on the auction block.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
1928 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Phantom I Ascot Dual Cowl Sport Phaeton is nearly
perfect after benefiting from a thorough restoration with a total investment of
$1.2 million.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">F.
Scott Fitzgerald selected a Rolls-Royce as the car to be featured in his
classic and timeless novel. The car was described in detail in the novel and
was an important highlight in the movie as well. And with an all-star cast
selected by Paramount studios, it was important the Rolls-Royce was equally as
stunning. Robert Redford starred alongside Mia Farrow to create this all-time
classic movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">S304KP
was just the right car to co-star with Robert Redford. It had been owned by Ted
Leonard, who was a well known collector from Seekonk, Massachusetts. The Rolls
is likely the only Ascot sport phaeton built as a dual cowl.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
this was one of the details F. Scott Fitzgerald included in his description of
Jay Gatsby’s Rolls: “He saw me looking with admiration at his car. ‘It’s
pretty, isn’t it, old sport!’ He jumped off to give me a better view. ‘Haven’t
you ever seen it before?’ I’d seen it. Everybody had seen it. It was a rich
cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length
with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a
labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns. Sitting down behind many
layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory, we started to town.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After
being selected as The Gatsby Rolls, S304KP required its livery repainted in the
creamy yellow combination and its leather interior to be dyed in an elegant
green.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chassis
S304KP was originally a Town Brougham delivered to Mildred Loring Logan of New
York City, and was later owned by American Tobacco Company president, George
Washington Hill. There is no documented history in the Rolls-Royce factory
“Schoellkopf Cards” from 1929 through 1964.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
research determines that the Ascot body was originally mounted onto chassis
S240RM and that the body was moved onto chassis S304KP sometime during or after
1945. The history of the Rolls is well researched and documented, and copies of
the related factory and historical information accompany the motorcar. Mr.
Leonard acquired the car just in time for the starring role as The Gatsby
Rolls. The Leonard’s maintained ownership of S304KP for the next 36 years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
2009, The Gatsby Rolls was sold at auction from Leonard’s estate to John
O’Quinn of Houston, Texas. Mr. O’Quinn died suddenly a few months later, and
the car was eventually sold to the current owners, for whom a ground-up
restoration was completed from 2011 through 2019. Many of the leading experts
were involved in the restoration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Steve
Littin from Vintage & Auto Rebuilds in Chardon, Ohio, did the full
mechanical restoration and the paint and body restoration was performed by
Shawn Robinson from Yesterday’s in Tyler, Texas. The Gatsby Rolls is nearly
perfect today after a total investment in the restoration of about $1.2
million. It would be welcomed at any concours event throughout the world, and
had been invited to be shown at the 2019 Pebble Beach Concours.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
elegant cream paint is excellent in all respects and is accented by the
abundance of concours quality chrome. The green leather interior is
complimented by the tan Haartz cloth canvas convertible top and the beautiful
wood dashboard with chrome bezels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Ascot body is widely considered one of the most stunning designs of the classic
period. It is both sporty and elegant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bidding
for the car begins Oct. 12. To learn more, visit
www.classicpromenade.com/inventory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-16795546186819244022020-07-28T11:00:00.001-07:002020-07-28T11:00:00.226-07:00She was beautiful<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-themecolor: text1;">She was
beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines. She was beautiful, for
the way she thought. She was beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she
talked about something she loved. She was beautiful, for her ability to make
other people smile even if she was sad. No, she wasn't beautiful for something
as temporary as her looks. She was beautiful, deep down to her soul.— F. Scott
Fitzgerald<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-48549531886652188352020-05-05T18:30:00.000-07:002020-05-05T18:30:14.631-07:00- Zelda Fitzgerald, in a letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1919<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBSiOO4PBGXJzvnL-m7afZxQPtj5s5Ccx1XlPB4d94v0qCVB9TWvGs7ubvsLSaDvSnmPiQJXcbpzRKUT0GpJ4EUtim0evE4tcnGmTSct3mF-HRjAiOL8J7JoRYWxPMrzFuncQkKbK0oQ/s1600/tumblr_ote3gmif4E1s5yzl3o1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1255" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBSiOO4PBGXJzvnL-m7afZxQPtj5s5Ccx1XlPB4d94v0qCVB9TWvGs7ubvsLSaDvSnmPiQJXcbpzRKUT0GpJ4EUtim0evE4tcnGmTSct3mF-HRjAiOL8J7JoRYWxPMrzFuncQkKbK0oQ/s640/tumblr_ote3gmif4E1s5yzl3o1_1280.jpg" width="502" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="npfquote" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> “…but somehow I can’t find
anything hopeless in having lived—all the broken columnes and clasped hands and
doves and angels mean romances—and in a hundred years I think I shall like
having young people speculate on whether my eyes were brown or blue—of course,
they are neither—I hope my grave has an air of many, many years ago about
it—isn’t it funny how, out of a row of confederate soldiers, two or three will
make you think of dead lovers and dead loves—when they’re exactly like the
others, even to the yellowish moss? Old death is so beautiful—so very
beautiful—we will die together—I know”</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-21900665009285622532020-02-17T12:06:00.000-08:002020-02-17T12:06:30.241-08:00Gatsby<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“… there was something gorgeous
about [Gatsby], some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life… . it was
an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found
in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.”
—<b>narrator Nick Carraway speaking of Jay Gatsby, second page, chapter 1<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y9L14O7L_JQ/XkryQR-AWsI/AAAAAAAA0ak/d31pzdtwMOw7q-6DgLNhzWxaLU4ymCkFwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/tumblr_mjpeynU9zr1rrze6lo1_500.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="424" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y9L14O7L_JQ/XkryQR-AWsI/AAAAAAAA0ak/d31pzdtwMOw7q-6DgLNhzWxaLU4ymCkFwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/tumblr_mjpeynU9zr1rrze6lo1_500.webp" width="476" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p><b><br /></b></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-76434380823601247022020-02-10T12:11:00.000-08:002020-02-10T12:11:13.742-08:00The New American Home 1929<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lXV3vNq68fw/XkG414jEcRI/AAAAAAAA0aQ/6r7Wpf9nndIOcnrASfoPVb5FrRTHPOwcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/tumblr_12e35310dc17860d927adcef88d1850c_e564a0d1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="1280" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lXV3vNq68fw/XkG414jEcRI/AAAAAAAA0aQ/6r7Wpf9nndIOcnrASfoPVb5FrRTHPOwcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/tumblr_12e35310dc17860d927adcef88d1850c_e564a0d1_1280.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lDqIXPHGBsU/XkG414sATXI/AAAAAAAA0aU/XaIqIP9cMrwY5J_mlNDo9gHH4cIzXwThQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/tumblr_6369ad5328946fad4e86a115147c8545_ad30a7b7_1280%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1158" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lDqIXPHGBsU/XkG414sATXI/AAAAAAAA0aU/XaIqIP9cMrwY5J_mlNDo9gHH4cIzXwThQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/tumblr_6369ad5328946fad4e86a115147c8545_ad30a7b7_1280%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="462" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-40559279069724255482020-01-22T10:27:00.002-08:002020-01-22T10:27:19.902-08:00 Everyone invited: `Great Gatsby' copyright to end in 2021<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">NEW YORK — <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For decades, Jay Gatsby, Daisy
Buchanan and other characters from “The Great Gatsby” have been as real to
millions of readers as people in their own lives, exemplars and victims of the
American pursuit of wealth and status.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Starting next January, F. Scott
Fitzgerald's classic Jazz Age tale will truly belong to everyone. The novel's
copyright is set to expire at the end of 2020, meaning that anyone will be
allowed to publish the book, adapt it to a movie, make it into an opera or
stage a Broadway musical. No longer will you need to permission to write a
sequel, a prequel, a Jay Gatsby detective novel or a Gatsby narrative populated
with Zombies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“We're just very grateful to have
had it under copyright, not just for the rather obvious benefits, but to try
and safeguard the text, to guide certain projects and try to avoid unfortunate
ones,” says Blake Hazard, the late author's great-granddaughter and a trustee
of his literary estate. “We're now looking to a new period and trying to view
it with enthusiasm, knowing some exciting things may come.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I wish it were possible for the
Fitzgerald Trust to retain copyright,” says Fitzgerald scholar James L. W. West
III, a professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University. “They have been
wonderful caretakers of Fitzgerald's literary rights and his reputation. But
under our laws all literary works eventually belong to the people. That's
probably as it should be.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Gatsby” has endured in a
changing industry and a changing world. It was published in 1925 by Scribner
and remains a Scribner book, though now part of Simon & Schuster. The
novel, popular with general readers and a standard assignment for students, has
sales as dependable as any so-called “backlist title.” When Fitzgerald died in
1940, fewer than 25,000 copies of the book had sold. Now, worldwide sales are
nearing 30 million and more than 500,000 copies sell each year in the U.S.
alone, according to Scribner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Publishers specializing in older
works already are preparing their own editions. The Library of America will
include the novel next year in a planned hardcover volume, edited by West, of
Fitzgerald's work. The Everyman Library, which for years has published the
novel in the United Kingdom, will release a hardcover edition in the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As with such current public
domain titles as “Pride and Prejudice,” “The Scarlet Letter”and “Great
Expectations,” cheap paperback editions and free e-book editions are likely to
proliferate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Scribner editor-in-chief Nan
Graham acknowledges that sales are likely to fall, but says the publisher is
working to hold on to as much of the market as it can, drawing in part on its
long ties to Fitzgerald's heirs. A graphic novel, featuring an introduction
from Blake Hazard, is coming out in June. In 2018, Scribner reissued the book
with a so-called authoritative text, making minor changes based on Fitzgerald's
own notes. The introduction was provided by Scribner author Jesmyn Ward, a
two-time National Book Award winner who wrote of how she, an African American
from rural Mississippi, could relate to Fitzgerald's saga set in Long Island,
New York.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Hungry as I was to escape my own
little nowhere country town, my own poor beginnings, as a teen I could only see
Gatsby’s yearning. I was too young to know his wanting is wasted from the
moment he feels it,” Ward writes. "The seasoned heart aches for James
Gatz, the perpetual child, the arrested romantic, bound by one perfect moment
to failure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“This is a book that endures,
generation after generation, because every time a reader returns to ‘The Great
Gatsby,’ we discover new revelations, new insights, new burning bits of
language.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Hazard was closely involved with
the graphic novel, which features illustrations by Aya Morton and an adaptation
of the text by Fred Fordham, who worked on the graphic novel of “To Kill a
Mockingbird.” Hazard researched various illustrators before coming upon “His
Dream of the Skyland,” a graphic novel set in Hong Kong in the 1920s that
features Morton's drawings and words by Ann Opotowsky.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Morton told the AP in a recent
email that she had long admired 1920s fashion for its “structured graphic
design'' and “fluid, dreamy quality." She called Fitzgerald's novel
“incredibly visual," and was struck by his sense of detail, whether
describing cars, emotions or economic status.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Not only are the hues specific,
(blue, yellow, lavender), but what deeply intrigues me is how specific color
saturation is to mood and class hierarchy. For example, at the Buchanans,
people are wearing white and the colors (greens, reds, peaches), have a very
delicate and ‘pretty’ feel," she wrote, adding that her illustrations also
were influenced by car advertisements from the '20s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“To me, this theme is central to
the story because within American car culture is the notion, or fantasy, of
mobility. In other words, the idea that we have the freedom to physically move
to another place and leave behind the old problems or even the old
person."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Fitzgerald's novel has been used
in other art forms. It's at the heart of “Gatz,” an eight-hour stage show from
2010 in which the entire book is read. Several movie versions have come out,
from a silent film released not long after “Gatsby" was published to director
Baz Luhrmann's high-energy production in 2013, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as
Gatsby. Hazard said she enjoyed the Luhrmann film and a 1973 version starring
Robert Redford, and imagines other ways the story can be adapted to the screen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I would love to see an inclusive
adaptation of ‘Gatsby,' with a diverse cast,” she says. "Though the story
is set in a very specific time and place, it seems to me that a retelling of
this great American story could and should reflect a more diverse America.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-33744292109928571932020-01-21T14:19:00.002-08:002020-01-21T14:19:17.139-08:00Babylon Revisited a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">BABYLON
REVISITED <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"AND
WHERE'S Mr. Campbell?" Charlie asked. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Gone
to Switzerland. Mr. Campbell's a pretty sick man, Mr. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Wales."
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'm
sorry to hear that. And George Hardt?" Charlie inquired. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Back
in America, gone to work." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"And
where is the Snow Bird?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"He
was in here last week. Anyway, his friend, Mr. Schaeffer, is <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">in
Paris." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Two
familiar names from the long list of a year and a half ago. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Charlie
scribbled an address in his notebook and tore out the page. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"If
you see Mr. Schaeffer, give him this," he said. "It's my brother- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">in-law's
address. I haven't settled on a hotel yet." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He was
not really disappointed to find Paris was so empty. But the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">stillness
in the Ritz bar was strange and portentous. It was not an <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">American
bar any more he felt polite in it, and not as if he owned <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">it. It
had gone back into France. He felt the stillness from the mo- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ment he
got out of the taxi and saw the doorman, usually in a frenzy <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of
activity at this hour, gossiping with a chasseur by the servants' <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">entrance.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Passing
through the corridor, he heard only a single, bored voice in <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
once-clamorous women's room. When he turned into the bar he <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">traveled
the twenty feet of green carpet with his eyes fixed straight <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ahead by old
habit; and then, with his foot firmly on the rail, he <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">turned
and surveyed the room, encountering only a single pair of <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">eyes that
fluttered up from a newspaper in the corner. Charlie asked <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">for the
head barman, Paul, who in the latter days of the bull market <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">had come
to work in his own custom-built car disembarking, how- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ever,
with due nicety at the nearest corner. But Paul was at his coun- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">try house
today and Alix giving him information. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"No,
no more," Charlie said, "I'm going slow these days." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Alix
congratulated him : "You were going pretty strong a couple <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of years
ago." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Ill
stick to it all right," Charlie assured him. "I've stuck to it for <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">over a
year and a half now." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"How
do you find conditions in America?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
haven't been to America for months. I'm in business in Prague, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">representing
a couple of concerns there. They don't know about me <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">down
there." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Alix
smiled. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Remember
the night of George Hardt's bachelor dinner here?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">said
Charlie. "By the way, what's become of Claude Fessenden?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Alix
lowered his voice confidentially: "He's in Paris, but he doesn't <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">come here
any more. Paul doesn't allow it. He ran up a bill of thirty <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">thousand
francs, charging all his drinks and his lunches, and usually <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">his
dinner, for more than a year. And when Paul finally told him he <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">had to
pay, he gave him a bad check." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Alix
shook his head sadly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
don't understand it, such a dandy fellow. Now he's all bloated <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">up "
He made a plump apple of his hands. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Charlie
watched a group of strident queens installing themselves <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">in a
corner. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Nothing
affects them," he thought. "Stocks rise and fall, people <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">loaf or
work, but they go on forever." The place oppressed him. He <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">called
for the dice and shook with Alix for the drink. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Here
for long, Mr. Wales?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'm
here for four or five days to see my little girl." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Oh-hl
You have a little girl?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Outside,
the fire-red, gas-blue, ghost-green signs shone smokily <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">through
the tranquil rain. It was late afternoon and the streets were <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">in
movement ; the bistros gleamed. At the corner of the Boulevard <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">des
Capucines he took a taxi. The Place de la Concorde moved by in <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">pink
majesty; they crossed the logical Seine, and Charlie felt the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">sudden
provincial quality of the left bank. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Charlie
directed his taxi to the Avenue de 1'Opera, which was out <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of his
way. But he wanted to see the blue hour spread over the mag- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">nificent
fagade, and imagine that the cab horns, playing endlessly <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the first
few bars of Le Plus que Lent, were the trumpets of the Sec- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ond
Empire. They were closing the iron grill in front of Brentano's <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Book-store,
and people were already at dinner behind the trim little <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">bourgeois
hedge of Duval's. He had never eaten at a really cheap <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">restaurant
in Paris. Five-course dinner, four francs fifty, eighteen <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">cents,
wine included. For some odd reason he wished that he had. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As they
rolled on to the Left Bank and he felt its sudden pro- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">vincialism,
he thought, "I spoiled this city for myself. I didn't realize <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">it, but
the days came along one after another, and then two years <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">were
gone, and everything was gone, and I was gone." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He was
thirty-five, and good to look at. The Irish mobility of his <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">face was
sobered by a deep wrinkle between his eyes. As he rang his <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">brother-in-law's
bell in the Rue Palatine, the wrinkle deepened till it <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">pulled
down his brows; he felt a cramping sensation in his belly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From
behind the maid who opened the door darted a lovely little <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">girl of
nine who shrieked "Daddy ! " and flew up, struggling like a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">fish,
into his arms. She pulled his head around by one ear and set her <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">cheek
against his. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"My
old pie," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Oh,
daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, dads, dads, dads!" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She drew
him into the salon, where the family waited, a boy and a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">girl his
daughter's age, his sister-in-law and her husband. He greeted <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marion
with his voice pitched carefully to avoid either feigned en- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">thusiasm
or dislike, but her response was more frankly tepid, though <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">she
minimized her expression of unalterable distrust by directing her <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">regard
toward his child. The two men clasped hands in a friendly <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">way and
Lincoln Peters rested his for a moment on Charlie's <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">shoulder.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The room
was warm and comfortably American. The three chil- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">dren
moved intimately about, playing through the yellow oblongs <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that led
to other rooms; the cheer of six o'clock spoke in the eager <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">smacks of
the fire and the sounds of French activity in the kitchen. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But
Charlie did not relax ; his heart sat up rigidly in his body and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">he drew
confidence from his daughter, who from time to time came <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">close to
him, holding in her arms the doll he had brought. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Really
extremely well," he declared in answer to Lincoln's ques- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">tion.
"There's a lot of business there that isn't moving at all, but <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">we're
doing even better than ever. In fact, damn well. I'm bringing <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">my sister
over from America next month to keep house for me. My <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">income
last year was bigger than it was when I had money. You see, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
Czechs " <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">His
boasting was for a specific purpose ; but after a moment, see- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ing a
faint restiveness in Lincoln's eye, he changed the subject: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Those
are fine children of yours, well brought up, good manners." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"We
think Honoria's a great little girl too." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marion
Peters came back from the kitchen. She was a tall woman <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">with
worried eyes, who had once possessed a fresh American loveli- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ness.
Charlie had never been sensitive to it and was always surprised <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">when
people spoke of how pretty she had been. From the first there <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">had been
an instinctive antipathy between them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Well,
how do you find Honoria?" she asked. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Wonderful.
I was astonished how much she's grown in ten <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">months.
All the children are looking well." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"We
haven't had a doctor for a year. How do you like being back <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">in Paris
?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"It
seems very funny to see so few Americans around." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'm
delighted," Marion said vehemently. "Now at least you can <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">go into a
store without their assuming you're a millionaire. We've <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">suffered
like everybody, but on the whole it's a good deal pleasanter." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"But
it was nice while it lasted," Charlie said. "We were a sort of <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">royalty,
almost infallible, with a sort of magic around us. In the bar <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">this
afternoon" he stumbled, seeing his mistake "there wasn't a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">man I
knew." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She
looked at him keenly. "I should think you'd have had enough, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of
bars." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
only stayed a minute. I take one drink every afternoon, and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">no
more." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Don't
you want a cocktail before dinner?" Lincoln asked. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
take only one drink every afternoon, and I've had that." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
hope you keep to it," said Marion. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Her
dislike was evident in the coldness with which she spoke, but <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Charlie
only smiled; he had larger plans. Her very aggressiveness <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">gave him
an advantage, and he knew enough to wait. He wanted <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">them to
initiate the discussion of what they knew had brought him <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">to Paris.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At dinner
he couldn't decide whether Honoria was most like him <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">or her
mother. Fortunate if she didn't combine the traits of both that <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">had
brought them to disaster. A great wave of protectiveness went <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">over him.
He thought he knew what to do for her. He believed in <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">character
; he wanted to jump back a whole generation and trust in <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">character
again as the eternally valuable element. Everything else <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">wore out.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He left
soon after dinner, but not to go home. He was curious to <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">see Paris
by night with clearer and more judicious eyes than those <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of other
days. He bought a strapontin for the Casino and watched <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Josephine
Baker go through her chocolate arabesques. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After an
hour he left and strolled toward Montmartre, up the Rue <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Pigalle
into the Place Blanche. The rain had stopped and there were <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">a few
people in evening clothes disembarking from taxis in front of <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">cabarets,
and cocottes prowling singly or in pairs, and many Negroes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He passed
a lighted door from which issued music, and stopped with <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the sense
of familiarity ; it was Bricktop's, where he had parted with <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">so many
hours and so much money. A few doors farther on he found <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">another
ancient rendezvous and incautiously put his head inside. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Immediately
an eager orchestra burst into sound, a pair of profes- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">sional
dancers leaped to their feet and a maitre d 'hotel swooped <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">toward
him, crying, "Crowd just arriving, sir!" But he withdrew <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">quickly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"You
have to be damn drunk," he thought. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Zelli's
was closed, the bleak and sinister cheap hotels surrounding <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">it were
dark; up in the Rue Blanche there was more light and a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">local,
colloquial French crowd. The Poet's Cave had disappeared, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">but the
two great mouths of the Caf6 of Heaven and the Caf6 of Hell <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">still
yawned even devoured, as he watched, the meager contents of <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">a tourist
bus a German, a Japanese, and an American couple who <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">glanced
at him with frightened eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So much
for the effort and ingenuity of Montmartre. All the cater- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ing to
vice and waste was on an utterly childish scale, and he sud- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">denly
realized the meaning of the word "dissipate" to dissipate into <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">thin air;
to make nothing out of something. In the little hours of <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the night
every move from place to place was an enormous human <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">jump, an
increase of paying for the privilege of slower and slower <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">motion. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He
remembered thousand-franc notes given to an orchestra for <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">playing a
single number, hundred-franc notes tossed to a doorman <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">for
calling a cab. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But it
hadn't been given for nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It had
been given, even the most wildly squandered sum, as an <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">offering
to destiny that he might not remember the things most worth <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">remembering,
the things that now he would always remember his <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">child
taken from his control, his wife escaped to a grave in Vermont. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the
glare of a brasserie a woman spoke to him. He bought her <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">some eggs
and coffee, and then, eluding her encouraging stare, gave <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">her a
twenty-franc note and took a taxi to his hotel. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">II <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He woke
upon a fine fall day football weather. The depression of <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">yesterday
was gone and he liked the people on the streets. At noon <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">he sat
opposite Honoria at Le Grand Vatel, the only restaurant he <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">could
think of not reminiscent of champagne dinners and long <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">luncheons
that began at two and ended in a blurred and vague <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">twilight.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Now,
how about vegetables? Oughtn't you to have some vege- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">tables?"
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Well,
yes." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Here's
ipinards and chou-fleur and carrots and haricots" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'd
like chou-fleur." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Wouldn't
you like to have two vegetables?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
usually only have one at lunch." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
waiter was pretending to be inordinately fond of children. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Qu'elle
est mignonne la petite I Elle parle exactement comme une <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Fran$aise."
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"How
about dessert? Shall we wait and see?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
waiter disappeared. Honoria looked at her father expectantly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"What
are we going to do ?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"First,
we're going to that toy store in the Rue Saint-Honor6 and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">buy you
anything you like. And then we're going to the vaudeville <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">at the
Empire." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She
hesitated. "I like it about the vaudeville, but not the toy <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">store."
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Why
not?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Well,
you brought me this doll." She had it with her. "And I've <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">got lots
of things. And we're not rich any more, are we?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"We
never were. But today you are to have anything you want." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"All
right," she agreed resignedly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When
there had been her mother and a French nurse he had been <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">inclined
to be strict ; now he extended himself, reached out for a new <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">tolerance
; he must be both parents to her and not shut any of her <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">out of
communication. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
want to get to know you," he said gravely. "First let me intro- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">duce
myself. My name is Charles J. Wales, of Prague." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Oh,
daddy ! " her voice cracked with laughter. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"And
who are you, please?" he persisted, and she accepted a role <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">immediately:
"Honoria Wales, Rue Palatine, Paris." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Married
or single?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"No,
not married. Single." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He
indicated the doll. "But I see you have a child, madame." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Unwilling
to disinherit it, she took it to her heart and thought <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">quickly:
"Yes, I've been married, but I'm not married now. My <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">husband
is dead." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He went
on quickly, "And the child's name?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Simone.
That's after my best friend at school." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'm
very pleased that you're doing so well at school." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'm
third this month," she boasted. "Elsie" that was her cousin <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"is
only about eighteenth, and Richard is about at the bottom." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"You
like Richard and Elsie, don't you?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Oh,
yes. I like Richard quite well and I like her all right." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cautiously
and casually he asked : "And Aunt Marion and Uncle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lincoln
which do you like best?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Oh,
Uncle Lincoln, I guess." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He was
increasingly aware of her presence. As they came in, a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">murmur of
". . . adorable" followed them, and now the people at <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the next
table bent all their silences upon her, staring as if she were <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">something
no more conscious than a flower. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Why
don't I live with you?" she asked suddenly. "Because <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">mamma's
dead?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"You
must stay here and learn more French. It would have been <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">hard for
daddy to take care of you so well." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
don't really need much taking care of any more. I do everything <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">for
myself." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Going out
of the restaurant, a man and a woman unexpectedly <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">hailed
him. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Well,
the old Wales!" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Hello
there, Lorraine. . . . Dune." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sudden
ghosts out of the past: Duncan Schaeffer, a friend from <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">college.
Lorraine Quarries, a lovely, pale blonde of thirty ; one of a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">crowd who
had helped them make months into days in the lavish <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">times of
three years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"My
husband couldn't come this year," she said, in answer to his <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">question.
"We're poor as hell. So he gave me two hundred a month <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and told
me I could do my worst on that. . . . This your little <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">girl?"
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"What
about coming back and sitting down ?" Duncan asked. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Can't
do it." He was glad for an excuse. As always, he felt Lor- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">raine's
passionate, provocative attraction, but his own rhythm was <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">different
now. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Well,
how about dinner?" she asked. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'm
not free. Give me your address and let me call you." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Charlie,
I believe you're sober," she said judicially. "I honestly <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">believe
he's sober, Dune. Pinch him and see if he's sober." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Charlie
indicated Honoria with his head. They both laughed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"What's
your address?" said Duncan skeptically. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He
hesitated, unwilling to give the name of his hotel. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'm
not settled yet. I'd better call you. We're going to see the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">vaudeville
at the Empire." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"There
! That's what I want to do," Lorraine said. "I want to see <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">some
clowns and acrobats and jugglers. That's just what we'll do, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dune."
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"We've
got to do an errand first," said Charlie. "Perhaps we'll see <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">you
there." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"All
right, you snob. . . . Good-by, beautiful little girl." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Good-by."
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Honoria
bobbed politely. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Somehow,
an unwelcome encounter. They liked him because he <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">was
functioning, because he was serious; they wanted to see him, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">because
he was stronger than they were now, because they wanted <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">to draw a
certain sustenance from his strength. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At the
Empire, Honoria proudly refused to sit upon her father's <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">folded
coat. She was already an individual with a code of her own, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and
Charlie was more and more absorbed by the desire of putting a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">little of
himself into her before she crystallized utterly. It was hope- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">less to
try to know her in so short a time. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Between
the acts they came upon Duncan and Lorraine in the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">lobby
where the band was playing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Have
a drink?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"All
right, but not up at the bar. Well take a table." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The
perfect father." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Listening
abstractedly to Lorraine, Charlie watched Honoria's <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">eyes
leave their table, and he followed them wistfully about the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">room,
wondering what they saw. He met her glance and she smiled. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
liked that lemonade," she said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What had
she said ? What had he expected ? Going home in a taxi <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">afterward,
he pulled her over until her head rested against his chest. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Darling,
do you ever think about your mother?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Yes,
sometimes," she answered vaguely. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
don't want you to forget her. Have you got a picture of her?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Yes,
I think so. Anyhow, Aunt Marion has.Why don't you want <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">me to
forget her?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"She
loved you very much." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
loved her too." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They were
silent for a moment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Daddy,
I want to come and live with you," she said suddenly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">His heart
leaped ; he had wanted it to come like this. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Aren't
you perfectly happy?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Yes,
but I love you better than anybody. And you love me better <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">than
anybody, don't you, now that mummy's dead?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Of
course I do. But you won't always like me best, honey. You'll <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">grow up
and meet somebody your own age and go marry him and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">forget
you ever had a daddy." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Yes,
that's true," she agreed trancpilly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He didn't
go in. He was coming l&ack at nine o'clock and he <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">wanted to
keep himself fresh and new for the thing he must say then. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"When
you're safe inside, just show yourself in that window." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"All
right. Good-by, dads, dads, dads, dads." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He waited
in the dark street until she appeared, all warm and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">glowing,
in the window above and kissed her fingers out into the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">night. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ill <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They were
waiting. Marion sat behind the coffee service in a dig- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">nified
black dinner dress that just faintly suggested mourning. Lin- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">coln was
walking up and down with the animation of one who had <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">already
been talking. They were as anxious as he was to get into the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">question.
He opened it almost immediately : <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
suppose you know what I want to see you about why I really <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">came to
Paris." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marion
played with the black stars on her necklace and frowned. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'm
awfully anxious to have a home," he continued. "And Fm <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">awfully
anxious to have Honoria in it. I appreciate your taking in <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Honoria
for her mother's sake, but things have changed now" he <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">hesitated
and then continued more forcibly "changed radically with <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">me, and I
want to ask you to reconsider the matter. It would be silly <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">for me to
deny that about three years ago I was acting badly " <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marion
looked up at him with hard eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"
but all that's over. As I told you, I haven't had more than a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">drink a
day for over a year, and I take that drink deliberately, so <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that the
idea of alcohol won't get too big in my imagination. You <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">see the
idea?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"No,"
said Marion succinctly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"It's
a sort of stunt I set myself. It keeps the matter in propor- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">tion."
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
get you," said Lincoln. "You don't want to admit it's got any <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">attraction
for you." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Something
like that. Sometimes I forget and don't take it. But <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I try to
take it. Anyhow, I couldn't afford to drink in my position. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
people I represent are more than satisfied with what I've done, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and I'm
bringing my sister over from Burlington to keep house for <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">me, and I
want awfully to have Honoria too. You know that even <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">when her
mother and I weren't getting along well we never let any- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">thing
that happened touch Honoria. I know she's fond of me and I <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">know I'm
able to take care of her and well, there you are. How do <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">you feel
about it?" f <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He knew
that now he would have to take a beating. It would last <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">an hour
or two hours, and it would be difficult, but if he modulated <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">his
inevitable resentment to the chastened attitude of the reformed <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">sinner,
he might win his point in the end. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Keep your
temper, he told himself. You don't want to be justified. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You want
Honoria. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lincoln
spoke first : "We've been talking it over ever since we got <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">your
letter last month. We're happy to have Honoria here. She's a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">dear
little thing, and we're glad to be able to help her, but of course <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that
isn't the question " <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marion
interrupted suddenly. "How long are you going to stay <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">sober,
Charlie?" she asked. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Permanently,
I hope." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"How
can anybody count on that?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"You
know I never did drink heavily until I gave up business and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">came over
here with nothing to do. Then Helen and I began to run <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">around
with " <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Please
leave Helen out of it. I can't bear to hear you talk about <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">her like
that." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He stared
at her grimly ; he had never been certain how fond of <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">each
other the sisters were in life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"My
drinking only lasted about a year and a half from the time <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">we came
over until I collapsed." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"It
was time enough." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"It
was time enough," he agreed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"My
duty is entirely to Helen," she said. "I try to think what <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">she would
have wanted me to do. Frankly, from the night you did <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that
terrible thing you haven't really existed for me. I can't help <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that. She
was my sister." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Yes."
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"When
she was dying she asked me to look out for Honoria. If <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">you
hadn't been in a sanitarium then, it might have helped <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">matters."
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He had no
answer. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'll
never in my life be able to forget the morning when Helen <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">knocked
at my door, soaked to the skin and shivering and said you'd <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">locked
her out." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Charlie
gripped the sides of the chair. This was more difficult than <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">he
expected ; he wanted to launch out into a long expostulation and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">explanation,
but he only said : "The night I locked her out " and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">she
interrupted, "I don't feel up to going over that again." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After a
moment's silence Lincoln said : "We're getting off the sub- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ject. You
want Marion to set aside her legal guardianship and give <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">you
Honoria. I think the main point for her is whether she has con- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">fidence
in you or not." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
don't blame Marion," Charlie said slowly, "but I think she <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">can have
entire confidence in me. I had a good record up to three <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">years
ago. Of course, it's within human possibilities I might go <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">wrong any
time. But if we wait much longer I'll lose Honoria's child- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">hood and
my chance for a home." He shook his head, "I'll simply <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">lose her,
don't you see?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Yes,
I see," said Lincoln. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Why
didn't you think of all this before?" Marion asked. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
suppose I did, from time to time, but Helen and I were getting <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">along
badly. When I consented to the guardianship, I was flat on <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">my back
in a sanitarium and the market had cleaned me out. I <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">knew I'd
acted badly, and I thought if it would bring any peace to <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Helen,
I'd agree to anything. But now it's different. I'm functioning, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I'm
behaving damn well, so far as " <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Please
don't swear at me/' Marion said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He looked
at her, startled. With each remark the force of her dis- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">like
became more and more apparent. She had built up all her fear <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of life
into one wall and faced it toward him. This trivial reproof <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">was
possibly the result of some trouble with the cook several hours <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">before.
Charlie became increasingly alarmed at leaving Honoria in <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">this
atmosphere of hostility against himself; sooner or later it <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">would
come out, in a word here, a shake of the head there, and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">some of
that distrust would be irrevocably implanted in Honoria. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But he
pulled his temper down out of his face and shut it up inside <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">him; he
had won a point, for Lincoln realized the absurdity of <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marion's
remark and asked her lightly since when she had objected <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">to the
word "damn." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Another
thing," Charlie said: "Fm able to give her certain ad- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">vantages
now. I'm going to take a French governess to Prague with <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">me. Fve
got a lease on a new apartment " <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He
stopped, realizing that he was blundering. They couldn't be <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">expected
to accept with equanimity the fact that his income was <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">again
twice as large as their own. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
suppose you can give her more luxuries than we can," said <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marion.
"When you were throwing away money we were living <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">along
watching every ten francs. ... I suppose you'll start doing <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">it
again." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Oh,
no," he said. "Fve learned. I worked hard for ten years, you <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">know
until I got lucky in the market, like so many people. Terribly <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">lucky. It
won't happen again." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There was
a long silence. All of them felt their nerves straining, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and for
the first time in a year Charlie wanted a drink. He was sure <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">now that
Lincoln Peters wanted him to have his child. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marion
shuddered suddenly; part of her saw that Charlie's feet <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">were
planted on the earth now, and her own maternal feeling recog- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">nized the
naturalness of his desire ; but she had lived for a long time <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">with a
prejudice a prejudice founded on a curious disbelief in her <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">sister's
happiness, and which, in the shock of one terrible night, had <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">turned to
hatred for him. It had all happened at a point in her life <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">where the
discouragement of ill health and adverse circumstances <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">made it
necessary for her to believe in tangible villainy and a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">tangible
villain. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
can't help what I think!" she cried out suddenly. "How much <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">you were
responsible for Helen's death, I don't know. It's something <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">you'll
have to square with your own conscience." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An
electric current of agony surged through him ; for a moment <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">he was almost
on his feet, an unuttered sound echoing in his throat. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He hung
on to himself for a moment, another moment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Hold
on there," said Lincoln uncomfortably. "I never thought <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">you were
responsible for that." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Helen
died of heart trouble," Charlie said dully. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Yes,
heart trouble." Marion spoke as if the phrase had another <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">meaning
for her. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then, in
the flatness that followed her outburst, she saw him <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">plainly
and she knew he had somehow arrived at control over the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">situation.
Glancing at her husband, she found no help from him, and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">as
abruptly as if it were a matter of no importance, she threw up the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">sponge. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Do
what you like ! " she cried, springing up from her chair. "She's <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">your
child. I'm not the person to stand in your way. I think if it <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">were my
child I'd rather see her " She managed to check herself. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"You
two decide it. I can't stand this. I'm sick. I'm going to bed." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She
hurried from the room ; after a moment Lincoln said : <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"This
has been a hard day for her. You know how strongly she <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">feels
" His voice was almost apologetic : "When a woman gets an <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">idea in
her head." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Of
course." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"It's
going to be all right. I think she sees now that you can <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">provide
for the child, and so we can't very well stand in your way or <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Honoria's
way." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Thank
you, Lincoln." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'd
better go along and see how she is." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'm
going." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He was
still trembling when he reached the street, but a walk <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">down the
Rue Bonaparte to the quais set him up, and as he crossed <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
Seine, fresh and new by the quai lamps, he felt exultant. But <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">back in
his room he couldn't sleep. The image of Helen haunted <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">him.
Helen whom he had loved so until they had senselessly begun <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">to abuse
each other's love, tear it into shreds. On that terrible Feb- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ruary
night that Marion remembered so vividly, a slow quarrel had <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">gone on
for hours. There was a scene at the Florida, and then he <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">attempted
to take her home, and then she kissed young Webb at a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">table;
after that there was what she had hysterically said. When <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">he
arrived home alone he turned the key in the lock in wild anger. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How could
he know she would arrive an hour later alone, that there <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">would be
a snowstorm in which she wandered about in slippers, too <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">confused
to find a taxi? Then the aftermath, her escaping pneu- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">monia by
a miracle, and all the attendant horror. They were "recon- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ciled,"
but that was the beginning of the end, and Marion, who had <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">seen with
her own eyes and who imagined it to be one of many <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">scenes
from her sister's martyrdom, never forgot. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Going
over it again brought Helen nearer, and in the white, soft <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">light
that steals upon half sleep near morning he found himself talk- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ing to
her again. She said that he was perfectly right about Honoria <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and that
she wanted Honoria to be with him. She said she was glad <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">he was
being good and doing better. She said a lot of other things <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">very
friendly things but she was in a swing in a white dress, and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">swinging
faster and faster all the time, so that at the end he could <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">not hear
clearly all that she said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">IV <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He woke
up feeling happy. The door of the world was open again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He made
plans, vistas, futures for Honoria and himself, but suddenly <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">he grew
sad, remembering all the plans he and Helen had made. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She had
not planned to die. The present was the thing work to do <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and
someone to love. But not to love too much, for he knew the injury <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that a
father can do to a daughter or a mother to a son by attaching <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">them too
closely : afterward, out in the world, the child would seek <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">in the
marriage partner the same blind tenderness and, failing <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">probably
to find it, turn against love and life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was
another bright, crisp day. He called Lincoln Peters at the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">bank
where he worked and asked if he could count on taking Honoria <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">when he
left for Prague. Lincoln agreed that there was no reason for <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">delay.
One thing the legal guardianship. Marion wanted to retain <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that a
while longer. She was upset by the whole matter, and it would <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">oil
things if she felt that the situation was still in her control for <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">another
year. Charlie agreed, wanting only the tangible, visible child. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then the
question of a governess. Charles sat in a gloomy agency <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and
talked to a cross Bearnaise and to a buxom Breton peasant, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">neither
of whom he could have endured. There were others whom he <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">would see
tomorrow. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He
lunched with Lincoln Peters at Griffons, trying to keep down <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">his
exultation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"There's
nothing quite like your own child," Lincoln said. "But <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">you
understand how Marion feels too." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"She's
forgotten how hard I worked for seven years there," Charlie <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">said.
"She just remembers one night." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"There's
another thing." Lincoln hesitated. "While you and Helen <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">were
tearing around Europe throwing money away, we were just <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">getting
along. I didn't touch any of the prosperity because I never <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">got ahead
enough to carry anything but my insurance. I think <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marion
felt there was some kind of injustice in it you not even <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">working
toward the end, and getting richer and richer." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"It
went just as quick as it came," said Charlie. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Yes,
a lot of it stayed in the hands of chasseurs and saxophone <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">players
and maitres dTiotel well, the big party's over now. I just <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">said that
to explain Marion's feeling about those crazy years. If you <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">drop in
about six o'clock tonight before Marion's too tired, we'll <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">settle
the details on the spot." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Back at
his hotel, Charlie found a pneumatique that had been re- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">directed
from the Ritz bar where Charlie had left his address for <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
purpose of finding a certain man. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"DEAR
CHARLIE : You were so strange when we saw you the other <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">day that
I wondered if I did something to offend you. If so, I'm not <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">conscious
of it. In fact, I have thought about you too much for the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">last
year, and it's always been in the back of my mind that I might <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">see you
if I came over here. We did have such good times that crazy <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">spring,
like the night you and I stole the butcher's tricycle, and the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">time we
tried to call on the president and you had the old derby rim <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and the
wire cane. Everybody seems so old lately, but I don't feel <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">old a
bit. Couldn't we get together some time today for old time's <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">sake?
I've got a vile hang-over for the moment, but will be feeling <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">better
this afternoon and will look for you about five in the sweat- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">shop at
the Ritz. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Always
devotedly, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"LORRAINE."
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">His first
feeling was one of awe that he had actually, in his <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">mature
years, stolen a tricycle and pedaled Lorraine all over the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">toile
between the small hours and dawn. In retrospect it was a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">nightmare.
Locking out Helen didn't fit in with any other act of his <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">life, but
the tricycle incident did it was one of many. How many <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">weeks or
months of dissipation to arrive at that condition of utter <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">irresponsibility
? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He tried
to picture how Lorraine had appeared to him then very <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">attractive;
Helen was unhappy about it, though she said nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yesterday,
in the restaurant, Lorraine had seemed trite, blurred, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">worn
away. He emphatically did not want to see her, and he was <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">glad Alix
had not given away his hotel address. It was a relief to <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">think,
instead, of Honoria, to think of Sundays spent with her and of <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">saying
good morning to her and of knowing she was there in his <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">house at
night, drawing her breath in the darkness. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At five
he took a taxi and bought presents for all the Peters a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">piquant
cloth doll, a box of Roman soldiers, flowers for Marion, big <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">linen
handkerchiefs for Lincoln. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He saw,
when he arrived in the apartment, that Marion had <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">accepted
the inevitable. She greeted him now as though he were a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">recalcitrant
member of the family, rather than a menacing outsider. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Honoria
had been told she was going ; Charlie was glad to see that <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">her tact
made her conceal her excessive happiness. Only on his lap <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">did she
whisper her delight and the question "When?" before she <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">slipped
away with the other children. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He and
Marion were alone for a minute in the room, and on an <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">impulse
he spoke out boldly : <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Family
quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">rules.
They 're not like aches or wounds ; they're more like splits in <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the skin
that won't heal because there's not enough material. I wish <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">you and I
could be on better terms." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Some
things are hard to forget," she answered. "It's a question <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of confidence."
There was no answer to this and presently she asked, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"When
do you propose to take her?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"As
soon as I can get a governess. I hoped the day after to- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">morrow."
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"That's
impossible. I've got to get her things in shape. Not before <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Saturday."
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He yielded.
Coming back into the room, Lincoln offered him a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">drink. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'll
take my daily whisky," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was
warm here, it was a home, people together by a fire. The <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">children
felt very safe and important ; the mother and father were <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">serious,
watchful. They had things to do for the children more im- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">portant
than his visit here. A spoonful of medicine was, after all, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">more
important than the strained relations between Marion and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">himself.
They were not dull people, but they were very much in the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">grip of
life and circumstances. He wondered if he couldn't do some- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">thing to
get Lincoln out of his rut at the bank. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A long
peal at the door-bell ; the bonne d tout faire passed through <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and went
down the corridor. The door opened upon another long <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ring, and
then voices, and the three in the salon looked up expect- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">antly;
Richard moved to bring the corridor within his range of <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">vision,
and Marion rose. Then the maid came back along the corridor, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">closely
followed by the voices, which developed under the light into <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Duncan
Schaeffer and Lorraine Quarries. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They were
gay, they were hilarious, they were roaring with laugh- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ter. For
a moment Charlie was astounded ; unable to understand how <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">they
ferreted out the Peters' address. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Ah-h-h!"
Duncan wagged his finger roguishly at Charlie. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Ah-h-h!"
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They both
slid down another cascade of laughter. Anxious and at <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">a loss,
Charlie shook hands with them quickly and presented them <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">to
Lincoln and Marion. Marion nodded, scarcely speaking. She had <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">drawn
back a step toward the fire ; her little girl stood beside her, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and
Marion put an arm about her shoulder. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With
growing annoyance at the intrusion, Charlie waited for <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">them to
explain themselves. After some concentration Duncan said : <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"We
came to invite you out to dinner. Lorraine and I insist that <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">all this
shishi, cagy business 'bout your address got to stop." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Charlie
came closer to them, as if to force them backward down <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
corridor. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Sorry,
but I can't. Tell me where you'll be and 111 phone you in <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">half an
hour." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This made
no impression. Lorraine sat down suddenly on the side <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of a
chair, and focusing her eyes on Richard, cried, "Oh, what a nice <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">little
boy I Come here, little boy." Richard glanced at his mother, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">but did
not move. With a perceptible shrug of her shoulders, Lor- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">raine
turned back to Charlie : <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Come
and dine. Sure your cousins won' mine. See you so sel'om. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Or
solemn." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
can't," said Charlie sharply. "You two have dinner and I'll <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">phone
you." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Her voice
became suddenly unpleasant. "All right, we'll go. But I <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">remember
once when you hammered on my door at four A.M. I was <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">enough of
a good sport to give you a drink. Come on, Dune." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Still in
slow motion, with blurred, angry faces, with uncertain feet, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">they
retired along the corridor. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Good
night," Charlie said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Good
night 1" responded Lorraine emphatically. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When he
went back into the salon Marion had not moved, only <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">now her
son was standing in the circle of her other arm. Lincoln <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">was still
swinging Honoria back and forth like a pendulum from side <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">to side. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"What
an outrage!" Charlie broke out. "What an absolute out- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">rage!"
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Neither
of them answered. Charlie dropped into an armchair, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">picked up
his drink, set it down again and said : <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"People
I haven't seen for two years having the colossal nerve " <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He broke
off. Marion had made the sound "Oh!" in one swift, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">furious
breath, turned her body from him with a jerk and left the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">room. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lincoln
set down Honoria carefully. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"You
children go in and start your soup," he said, and when they <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">obeyed,
he said to Charlie: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Marion's
not well and she can't stand shocks. That kind of peo- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ple make
her really physically sick." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
didn't tell them to come here. They wormed your name out of <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">somebody.
They deliberately " <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Well,
it's teo bad. It doesn't help matters. Excuse me a minute." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Left
alone, Charlie sat tense in his chair. In the next room he <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">could
hear the children eating, talking in monosyllables, already ob- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">livious
to the scene between their elders. He heard a murmur of con- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">versation
from a farther room and then the ticking bell of a tele- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">phone
receiver picked up, and in a panic he moved to the other side <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of the
room and out of earshot. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In a
minute Lincoln came back. "Look here, Charlie. I think we'd <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">better
call off dinner for tonight. Marion's in bad shape." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Is
she angry with me?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Sort
of," he said, almost roughly. "She's not strong and " <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"You
mean she's changed her mind about Honoria?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"She's
pretty bitter right now. I don't know. You phone me at the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">bank
tomorrow." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
wish you'd explain to her I never dreamed these people would <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">come
here. I'm just as sore as you are." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
couldn't explain anything to her now." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Charlie
got up. He took his coat and hat and started down the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">corridor.
Then he opened the door of the dining room and said in <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">a strange
voice, "Good night, children." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Honoria
rose and ran around the table to hug him. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Good
night, sweetheart," he said vaguely, and then trying to <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">make his
voice more tender, trying to conciliate something, "Good <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">night,
dear children." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Charlie
went directly to the Ritz bar with the furious idea of find- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ing
Lorraine and Duncan, but they were not there, and he realized <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that in
any case there was nothing he could do. He had not touched <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">his drink
at the Peters, and now he ordered a whisky-and-soda. Paul <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">came over
to say hello. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"It's
a great change," he said sadly. "We do about half the busi- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ness we
did. So many fellows I hear about back in the States lost <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">everything,
maybe not in the first crash, but then in the second. Your <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">friend
George Hardt lost every cent, I hear. Are you back in the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">States?"
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"No,
I'm in business in Prague." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
heard that you lost a lot in the crash." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
did," and he added grimly, "but I lost everything I wanted in <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
boom." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Selling
short." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Something
like that." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Again the
memory of those days swept over him like a nightmare <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
people they had met travelling ; then people who couldn't add a <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">row of
figures or speak a coherent sentence. The little man Helen <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">had
consented to dance with at the ship's party, who had insulted <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">her ten
feet from the table ; the women and girls carried screaming <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">with
drink or drugs out of public places <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The men
who locked their wives out in the snow, because the <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">snow of
twenty-nine wasn't real snow. If you didn't want it to be <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">snow, you
just paid some money. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He went
to the phone and called the Peters' apartment ; Lincoln <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">answered.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
called up because this thing is on my mind. Has Marion said <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">anything
definite?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Marion's
sick," Lincoln answered shortly. "I know this thing <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">isn't
altogether your fault, but I can't have her go to pieces about <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">it. I'm
afraid we'll have to let it slide for six months ; I can't take <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
chance of working her up to this state again." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I
see." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'm
sorry, Charlie." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He went
back to his table. His whisky glass was empty, but he <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">shook his
head when Alix looked at it questioningly. There wasn't <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">much he
could do now except send Honoria some things ; he would <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">send her
a lot of things tomorrow. He thought rather angrily that <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">this was
just money he had given so many people money. . . . <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"No,
no more," he said to another waiter. "What do I owe you?" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He would
come back some day ; they couldn't make him pay for- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ever. But
he wanted his child, and nothing was much good now, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">beside
that fact. He wasn't young any more, with a lot of nice <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">thoughts
and dreams to have by himself. He was absolutely sure <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk30519289;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Helen
wouldn't have wanted him to be so alone. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-54863813841445149052020-01-21T07:42:00.001-08:002020-01-21T07:42:35.012-08:00And in the end<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqHPTc7rXgNNxfrfjETAXU7vAHqv5hIaV5xLkXb5w9QcF9mUZ1Vbo3ChQc9uKR3vMzer0SMvOybh7eBmTRgjpoYGmzeKR0gRT8sC4yuLU8sGIKn87CSL1pu2JqSVTziR3x8duE73Z-9w/s1600/tumblr_5043d846dc0db5b57f3538986c71fa48_3fb43392_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="640" height="590" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqHPTc7rXgNNxfrfjETAXU7vAHqv5hIaV5xLkXb5w9QcF9mUZ1Vbo3ChQc9uKR3vMzer0SMvOybh7eBmTRgjpoYGmzeKR0gRT8sC4yuLU8sGIKn87CSL1pu2JqSVTziR3x8duE73Z-9w/s640/tumblr_5043d846dc0db5b57f3538986c71fa48_3fb43392_640.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-39132710452338683332020-01-18T06:59:00.005-08:002020-01-18T06:59:56.691-08:00My courage<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">“My courage is faith--faith in the eternal resilience of me--that joy'll come back, and hope and spontaneity. And I feel that till it does I've got to keep my lips shut and my chin high and my eyes wide--not necessarily any silly smiling. Oh, I've been through hell without a whine quite often--and the female hell is deadlier than the male.” </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt;">― <b>F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby Girls</b></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OhxslLsc_6U/XiMdTl1N4KI/AAAAAAAA0Y0/XXeRtp4OpFsSdi4vAhLVC0bu0dg03QFswCEwYBhgL/s1600/tumblr_baa21c8609c33d8004fa24724a031fc1_7388ea8b_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="623" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OhxslLsc_6U/XiMdTl1N4KI/AAAAAAAA0Y0/XXeRtp4OpFsSdi4vAhLVC0bu0dg03QFswCEwYBhgL/s640/tumblr_baa21c8609c33d8004fa24724a031fc1_7388ea8b_640.jpg" width="462" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-69989453884080269552020-01-13T09:22:00.003-08:002020-01-13T09:22:56.230-08:00 THE ROUGH CROSSING<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gtXyZ5Ub8co/XhynamROWpI/AAAAAAAA0YQ/9W8-aEnsAIYOoIAX073rzlIZoPy_StdsgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/tumblr_5d202a3d1c1142876d63dbd152137ed3_29299145_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="871" data-original-width="770" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gtXyZ5Ub8co/XhynamROWpI/AAAAAAAA0YQ/9W8-aEnsAIYOoIAX073rzlIZoPy_StdsgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/tumblr_5d202a3d1c1142876d63dbd152137ed3_29299145_1280.jpg" width="564" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ONCE
ON the long, covered piers, you have come into a ghostly <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">country
that is no longer Here and not yet There. Especially at <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">night.
There is a hazy yellow vault full of shouting, echoing voices. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There
is the rumble of trucks and the clump of trunks, the strident <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">chatter
of a crane and the first salt smell of the sea. You hurry <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">through,
even though there's time. The past, the continent, is behind <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">you
; the future is that glowing mouth in the side of the ship ; this dim <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">turbulent
alley is too confusedly the present. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Up
the gangplank, and the vision of the world adjusts itself, nar- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">rows.
One is a citizen of a commonwealth smaller than Andorra. One <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">is
no longer so sure of anything. Curiously unmoved the men at the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">purser's
desk, cell-like the cabin, disdainful the eyes of voyagers and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">their
friends, solemn the officer who stands on the deserted prome- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">nade
deck thinking something of his own as he stares at the crowd <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">below.
A last odd idea that one didn't really have to come, then the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">loud,
mournful whistles, and the thing certainly not a boat, but <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">rather
a human idea, a frame of mind pushes forth into the big <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">dark
night. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Adrian
Smith, one of the celebrities on board not a very great <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">celebrity,
but important enough to be bathed in flash light by a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">photographer
who had been given his name, but wasn't sure what his <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">subject
"did" Adrian Smith and his blond wife, Eva, went up to the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">promenade
deck, passed the melancholy ship's officer, and, finding a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">quiet
aerie, put their elbows on the rail. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"We're
going!" he cried presently, and they both laughed in <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ecstasy.
"We've escaped. They can't get us now." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Who?"
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
waved his hand vaguely at the civic tiara. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"All
those people out there. They'll come with their posses and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">their
warrants and list of crimes we've committed, and ring the bell <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">at
our door on Park Avenue and ask for the Adrian Smiths, but <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">what
ho ! the Adrian Smiths and their children and nurse are off for <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">France."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You
make me think we really have committed crimes." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"They
can't have you," he said, frowning. "That's one thing they're <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">after
me about they know I haven't got any right to a person like <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">you,
and they're furious. That's one reason I'm glad to get away." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Darling,"
said Eva. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
was twenty-six five years younger than he. She was something <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">precious
to everyone who knew her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
like this boat better than the Majestic or the Aquitania" she <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">remarked,
unfaithful to the ships that had served their honeymoon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"It's
much smaller." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"But
it's very slick and it has all those little shops along the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">corridors.
And I think the staterooms are bigger." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"The
people are very formal did you notice ? as if they thought <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">everyone
else was a card sharp. And in about four days half of them <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">will
be calling the other half by their first names." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Four
of the people came by now a quartet of young girls abreast, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">making
a circuit of the deck. Their eight eyes swept momentarily <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">toward
Adrian and Eva, and then swept automatically back, save for <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">one
pair which lingered for an instant with a little start. They be- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">longed
to one of the girls in the middle, who was, indeed, the only <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">passenger
of the four. She was not more than eighteen a dark little <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">beauty
with the fine crystal gloss over her that, in brunettes, takes <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
place of a blonde's bright glow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Now,
who's that?" wondered Adrian. "I've seen her before." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"She's
pretty," said Eva. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Yes."
He kept wondering, and Eva deferred momentarily to his <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">distraction
; then, smiling up at him, she drew him back into their <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">privacy.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Tell
me more," she said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"About
what?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"About
us what a good time we'll have, and how we'll be much <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">better
and happier, and very close always." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"How
could we be any closer?" His arm pulled her to him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"But
I mean never even quarrel any more about silly things. You <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">know,
I made up my mind when you gave me my birthday present <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">last
week" her fingers caressed the fine seed pearls at her throat <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"that
I'd try never to say a mean thing to you again." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You
never have, my precious." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Yet
even as he strained her against his side she knew that the mo- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ment
of utter isolation had passed almost before it had begun. His <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">antennae
were already out, feeling over this new world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Most
of the people look rather awful," he said "little and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">swarthy
and ugly. Americans didn't use to look like that." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"They
look dreary," she agreed. "Let's not get to know anybody, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">but
just say together." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
gong was beating now, and stewards were shouting down the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">decks,
"Visitors ashore, please!" and voices rose to a strident <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">chorus.
For a while the gangplanks were thronged ; then they were <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">empty,
and the jostling crowd behind the barrier waved and called <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">unintelligible
things, and kept up a grin of good will. As the steve- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">dores
began to work at the ropes a flat-faced, somewhat befuddled <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">young
man arrived in a great hurry and was assisted up the gang- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">plank
by a porter and a taxi driver. The ship having swallowed him <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">as
impassively as though he were a missionary for Beirut, a low, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">portentous
vibration began. The pier with its faces commenced to <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">slide
by, and for a moment the boat was just a piece accidentally <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">split
off from it; then the faces became remote, voiceless, and the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">pier
was one among many yellow blurs along the water front. Now <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
harbor flowed swiftly toward the sea. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On
a northern parallel of latitude a hurricane was forming and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">moving
south by southeast preceded by a strong west wind. On its <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">course
it was destined to swamp the Peter I. Eudim of Amsterdam, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">with
a crew of sixty-six, to break a boom on the largest boat in the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">world,
and to bring grief and want to the wives of several hundred <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">seamen.
This liner, leaving New York Sunday evening, would enter <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
zone of the storm Tuesday, and of the hurricane late Wednes- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">day
night. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">II
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Tuesday
afternoon Adrian and Eva paid their first visit to the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">smoking
room. This was not in accord with their intentions they <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">had
"never wanted to see a cocktail again" after leaving America <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">but
they had forgotten the staccato loneliness of ships, and all ac- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tivity
centered about the bar. So they went in for just a minute. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
was full. There were those who had been there since luncheon, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
those who would be there until dinner, not to mention a faithful <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">few
who had been there since nine this morning. It was a prosperous <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">assembly,
taking its recreation at bridge, solitaire, detective stories, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">alcohol,
argument and love. Up to this point you could have matched <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">it
in the club or casino life of any country, but over it all played a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">repressed
nervous energy, a barely disguised impatience that ex- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tended
to old and young alike. The cruise had begun, and they had <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">enjoyed
the beginning, but the show was not varied enough to last <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">six
days, and already they wanted it to be over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">At
a table near them Adrian saw the pretty girl who had stared at <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">him
on the deck the first night. Again he was fascinated by her love- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">liness;
there was no mist upon the brilliant gloss that gleamed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">through
the smoky confusion of the room. He and Eva had decided <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">from
the passenger list that she was probably "Miss Elizabeth <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">D'Amido
and maid," and he had heard her called Betsy as he walked <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">past
a deck-tennis game. Among the young people with her was the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">flat-nosed
youth who had been "poured on board" the night of their <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">departure
; yesterday he had walked the deck morosely, but he was <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">apparently
reviving. Miss D'Amido whispered something to him, and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">he
looked over at the Smiths with curious eyes. Adrian was new <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">enough
at being a celebrity to turn self-consciously away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"There's
a little roll. Do you feel it?" Eva demanded. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Perhaps
we'd better split a pint of champagne." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While
he gave the order a short colloquy was taking place at the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">other
table ; presently a young man rose and came over to them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Isn't
this Mr. Adrian Smith?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Yes."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"We
wondered if we couldn't put you down for the deck-tennis <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tournament.
We're going to have a deck-tennis tournament." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Why
" Adrian hesitated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"My
name's Stacomb," burst out the young man. "We all know <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">your
your plays or whatever it is, and all that and we wondered <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">if
you wouldn't like to come over to our table." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Somewhat
overwhelmed, Adrian laughed: Mr. Stacomb, glib, soft, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">slouching,
waited ; evidently under the impression that he had de- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">livered
himself of a graceful compliment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Adrian,
understanding that, too, replied: "Thanks, but perhaps <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">you'd
better come over here." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"We've
got a bigger table." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"But
we're older and more more settled." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
young man laughed kindly, as if to say, "That's all right." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Put
me down," said Adrian. "How much do I owe you?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"One
buck. Call me Stac." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Why?"
asked Adrian, startled. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"It's
shorter." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
he had gone they smiled broadly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Heavens,"
Eva gasped, "I believe they are coming over." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">They
were. With a great draining of glasses, calling of waiters, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">shuffling
of chairs, three boys and two girls moved to the Smiths' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">table.
If there was any diffidence, it was confined to the hosts ; for <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
new additions gathered around them eagerly, eying Adrian with <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">respect
too much respect as if to say: "This was probably a mis- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">take
and won't be amusing, but maybe we'll get something out of it <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">to
help us in our after life, like at school." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
a moment Miss D'Amido changed seats with one of the men <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
placed her radiant self at Adrian's side, looking at him with <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">manifest
admiration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
fell in love with you the minute I saw you," she said, audibly <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
without self-consciousness ; "so 111 take all the blame for butting <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">in.
IVe seen your play four times." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Adrian
called a waiter to take their orders. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You
see," continued Miss D'Amido, "we're going into a storm, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
you might be prostrated the rest of the trip, so I couldn't take <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">any
chances." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
saw that there was no undertone or innuendo in what she said, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">nor
the need of any. The words themselves were enough, and the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">deference
with which she neglected the young men and bent her <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">politeness
on him was somehow very touching. A little glow went <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">over
him ; he was having rather more than a pleasant time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Eva
was less entertained; but the flat-nosed young man, whose <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">name
was Butterworth, knew people that she did, and that seemed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">to
make the affair less careless and casual. She did not like meeting <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">new
people unless they had "something to contribute," and she was <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">often
bored by the great streams of them, of all types and conditions <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
classes, that passed through Adrian's life. She herself "had <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">everything"
which is to say that she was well endowed with <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">talents
and with charm and the mere novelty of people did not <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">seem
a sufficient reason for eternally offering everything up to <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">them.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Half
an hour later when she rose to go and see the children, she <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">was
content that the episode was over. It was colder on deck, with a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">damp
that was almost rain, and there was a perceptible motion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Opening
the door of her stateroom she was surprised to find the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">cabin
steward sitting languidly on her bed, his head slumped upon <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
upright pillow. He looked at her listlessly as she came in, but <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">made
no move to get up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"When
you've finished your nap you can fetch me a new pillow- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">case,"
she said briskly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Still
the man didn't move. She perceived then that his face was <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">green.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You
can't be seasick in here," she announced firmly. "You go and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">lie
down in your own quarters." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"It's
me side," he said faintly. He tried to rise, gave out a little <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">rasping
sound of pain and sank back again. Eva rang for the stew- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ardess.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
steady pitch, toss, roll had begun in earnest and she felt no sym- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">pathy
for the steward, but only wanted to get him out as quick as <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">possible.
It was outrageous for a member of the crew to be seasick. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
the stewardess came in Eva tried to explain this, but now her <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">own
head was whirring, and throwing herself on the bed, she covered <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">her
eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"It's
his fault," she groaned when the man was assisted from the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">room.
"I was all right and it made me sick to look at him. I wish he'd <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">die."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
a few minutes Adrian came in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Oh,
but I'm sick ! " she cried. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Why,
you poor baby." He leaned over and took her in his arms. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Why
didn't you tell me?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
was all right upstairs, but there was a steward Oh, I'm too <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">sick
to talk." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You'd
better have dinner in bed." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Dinner
! Oh, my heavens I " <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
waited solicitously, but she wanted to hear his voice, to have <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">it
drown out the complaining sound of the beams. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Where've
you been?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Helping
to sign up people for the tournament." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Will
they have it if it's like this? Because if they do I'll just lose <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">for
you." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
didn't answer ; opening her eyes, she saw that he was frown- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ing.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
didn't know you were going in the doubles," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Why,
that's the only fun." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
told the D'Amido girl I'd play with her." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Oh."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
didn't think. You know I'd much rather play with you." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Why
didn't you, then?" she asked coolly. ' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"It
never occurred to me." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
remembered that on their honeymoon they had been in the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">finals
and won a prize. Years passed. But Adrian never frowned in <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">this
regretful way unless he felt a little guilty. He stumbled about, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">getting
his dinner clothes out of the trunk, and she shut her eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
a particular violent lurch startled her awake again he was <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">dressed
and tying his tie. He looked healthy and fresh, and his eyes <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">were
bright. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Well,
how about it?" he inquired. "Can you make it, or no?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"No."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Can
I do anything for you before I go?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Where
are you going?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Meeting
those kids in the bar. Can I do anything for you?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"No."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Darling,
I hate to leave you like this." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Don't
be silly. I just want to sleep." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">That
solicitous frown when she knew he was crazy to be out and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">away
from the close cabin. She was glad when the door closed. The <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">thing
to do was to sleep, sleep. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Up
down sideways. Hey there, not so far I Pull her round the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">corner
there! Now roll her, right left Crea-eak! Wrench! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Swoop
I <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Some
hours later Eva was dimly conscious of Adrian bending over <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">her.
She wanted him to put his arms around her and draw her up <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">out
of this dizzy lethargy, but by the time she was fully awake the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">cabin
was empty. He had looked in and gone. When she awoke next <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
cabin was dark and he was in bed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
morning was fresh and cool, and the sea was just enough <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">calmer
to make Eva think she could get up. They breakfasted in the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">cabin
and with Adrian's help she accomplished an unsatisfactory <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">makeshift
toilet and they went up on the boat deck. The tennis <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tournament
had already begun and was furnishing action for a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">dozen
amateur movie cameras, but the majority of passengers were <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">represented
by lifeless bundles in deck chairs beside untasted trays. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Adrian
and Miss D'Amido played their first match. She was deft <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
graceful ; blatantly well. There was even more warmth behind <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">her
ivory skin than there had been the day before. The strolling <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">first
officer stopped and talked to her ; half a dozen men whom she <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">couldn't
have known three days ago called her Betsy. She was al- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ready
the pretty girl of the voyage, the cynosure of starved ship's <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">eyes.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But
after a while Eva preferred to watch the gulls in the wireless <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">masts
and the slow slide of the roll-top sky. Most of the passengers <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">looked
silly with their movie cameras that they had all rushed to get <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
now didn't know what to use for, but the sailors painting the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">lifeboat
stanchions were quiet and beaten and sympathetic, and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">probably
wished, as she did, that the voyage was over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Butterworth
sat down on the deck beside her chair. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"They're
operating on one of the stewards this morning. Must be <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">terrible
in this sea." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Operating?
What for?" she asked listlessly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Appendicitis.
They have to operate now because we're going into <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">worse
weather. That's why they're having the ship's party tonight." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Oh,
the poor man ! " she cried, realizing it must be her steward. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Adrian
was showing off now by being very courteous and thought- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ful
in the game. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Sorry.
Did you hurt yourself? . . . No, it was my fault. . . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">You
better put on your coat right away, pardner, or you'll catch <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">cold."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
match was over and they had won. Flushed and hearty, he <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">came
up to Eva's chair. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"How
do you feel?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Terrible."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Winners
are buying a drink in the bar," he said apologetically. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I'm
coming, too," Eva said, but an immediate dizziness made her <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">sink
back in her chair. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You'd
better stay here. I'll send you up something." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
felt that his public manner had hardened toward her slightly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You'll
come back?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Oh,
right away." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
was alone on the boat deck, save for a solitary ship's officer <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">who
slanted obliquely as he paced the bridge. When the cocktail <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">arrived
she forced herself to drink it, and felt better. Trying to dis- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tract
her mind with pleasant things, she reached back to the sanguine <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">talks
that she and Adrian had had before sailing : There was the little <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">villa
in Brittany, the children learning French that was all she <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">could
think of now the little villa in Brittany, the children learn- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ing
French so she repeated the words over and over to herself until <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">they
became as meaningless as the wide white sky. The why of their <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">being
here had suddenly eluded her; she felt unmotivated, acci- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">dental,
and she wanted Adrian to come back quick, all responsive and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tender,
to reassure her. It was in the hope that there was some se- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">cret
of graceful living, some real compensation for the lost, careless <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">confidence
of twenty-one, that they were going to spend a year in <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">France.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
day passed darkly, with fewer people around and a wet sky <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">falling.
Suddenly it was five o'clock, and they were all in the bar <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">again,
and Mr. Butterworth was telling her about his past. She took <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">a
good deal of champagne, but she was seasick dimly through it, as <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">if
the illness was her soul trying to struggle up through some thick- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ening
incrustation of abnormal life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You're
my idea of a Greek goddess, physically," Butterworth was <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">saying.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
was pleasant to be Mr. Butterworth's idea of a Greek goddess <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">physically,
but where was Adrian? He and Miss D'Amido had gone <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">out
on a forward deck to feel the spray. Eva heard herself promising <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">to
get out her colors and paint the Eiffel Tower on Butterworth's <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">shirt
front for the party tonight. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
Adrian and Betsy D'Amido, soaked with spray, opened the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">door
with difficulty against the driving wind and came into the now- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">covered
security of the promenade deck, they stopped and turned <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">toward
each other. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Well?"
she said. But he only stood with his back to the rail, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">looking
at her, afraid to speak. She was silent, too, because she <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">wanted
him to be first; so for a moment nothing happened. Then <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">she
made a step toward him, and he took her in his arms and kissed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">her
forehead. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You're
just sorry for me, that's all." She began to cry a little. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You're
just being kind." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
feel terribly about it." His voice was taut and trembling. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Then
kiss me." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
deck was empty. He bent over her swiftly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"No,
really kiss me." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
could not remember when anything had felt so young and fresh <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">as
her lips. The rain lay, like tears shed for him, upon the softly <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">shining
porcelain cheeks. She was all new and immaculate, and her <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">eyes
were wild. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
love you," she whispered. "I can't help loving you, can I? When <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
first saw you oh, not on the boat, but over a year ago Grace <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Heally
took me to a rehearsal and suddenly you jumped up in the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">second
row and began telling them what to do. I wrote you a letter <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
tore it up." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"We've
got to go." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
was weeping as they walked along the deck. Once more, im- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">prudently,
she held up her face to him at the door of her cabin. His <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">blood
was beating through him in wild tumult as he walked on to the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">bar.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
was thankful that Eva scarcely seemed to notice him or to <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">know
that he had been gone. After a moment he pretended an inter- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">est
in what she was doing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"What's
that?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"She's
painting the Eiffel Tower on my shirt front for tonight," <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">explained
Butterworth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"There,"
Eva laid away her brush and wiped her hands. "How's <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">that?"
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"A
chef-d'oeuvre:' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Her
eyes swept around the watching group, lingered casually upon <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Adrian.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You're
wet. Go and change." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You
come too." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
want another champagne cocktail." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You've
had enough. It's time to dress for the party." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Unwilling
she closed her paints and preceded him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Stacomb's
got a table for nine," he remarked as they walked <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">along
the corridor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"The
younger set," she said with unnecessary bitterness. "Oh, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
younger set. And you just having the time of your life with <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">a
child." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">They
had a long discussion in the cabin, unpleasant on her part <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
evasive on his, which ended when the ship gave a sudden gigan- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tic
heave, and Eva, the edge worn off her champagne, felt ill again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There
was nothing to do but to have a cocktail in the cabin, and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">after
that they decided to go to the party she believed him now, or <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">she
didn't care. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Adrian
was ready first he never wore fancy dress. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I'll
go on up. Don't be long." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Wait
for me, please ; it's rocking so." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
sat down on a bed, concealing his impatience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You
don't mind waiting, do you? I don't want to parade up there <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">all
alone." / <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
was taking a tuck in an oriental costume rented from the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">barber.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Ships
make people feel crazy," she said. "I think they're awful." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Yes,"
he muttered absently. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"When
it gets very bad I pretend I'm in the top of a tree, rocking <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">to
and fro. But finally I get pretending everything, and finally I have <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">to
pretend I'm sane when I know I'm not." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"If
you get thinking that way you will go crazy." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Look,
Adrian." She held up the string of pearls before clasping <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">them
on. "Aren't they lovely?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
Adrian's impatience she seemed to move around the cabin <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">like
a figure in a slow-motion picture. After a moment he de- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">manded
: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Are
you going to be long? It's stifling in here." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You
go on ! " she fired up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
don't want " <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Go
on, please ! You just make me nervous trying to hurry me." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">With
a show of reluctance he left her. After a moment's hesitation <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">he
went down a flight to a deck below and knocked at a door. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Betsy."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Just
a minute." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
came out in the corridor attired in a red pea-jacket and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">trousers
borrowed from the elevator boy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Do
elevator boys have fleas ?" she demanded. "I've got everything <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">in
the world on under this as a precaution." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
had to see you," he said quickly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Careful,"
she whispered. "Mrs. Worden, who's supposed to be <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">chaperoning
me, is across the way. She's sick." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I'm
sick for you." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">They
kissed suddenly, clung close together in the narrow corridor, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">swaying
to and fro with the motion of the ship. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Don't
go away," she murmured. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I've
got to. I've " <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Her
youth seemed to flow into him, bearing him up into a delicate, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">romantic
ecstasy that transcended passion. He couldn't relinquish it ; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">he
had discovered something that he had thought was lost with his <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">own
youth forever. As he walked along the passage he knew that he <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">had
stopped thinking, no longer dared to think. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
met Eva going into the bar. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"WhereVe
you been?" she asked with a strained smile. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"To
see about the table." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
was lovely ; her cool distinction conquered the trite costume <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
filled him with a resurgence of approval and pride. They sat <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">down
at a table. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
gale was rising hour by hour and the mere traversing of a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">passage
had become a rough matter. In every stateroom trunks were <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">lashed
to the washstands, and the Vestris disaster was being re- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">viewed
in detail by nervous ladies, tossing, ill and wretched, upon <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">their
beds. In the smoking room a stout gentleman had been hurled <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">backward
and suffered a badly cut head ; and now the lighter chairs <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
tables were stacked and roped against the wall. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
crowd who had donned fancy dress and were dining together <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">had
swollen to about sixteen. The only remaining qualification for <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">membership
was the ability to reach the smoking room. They ranged <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">from
a Groton-Harvard lawyer to an ungrammatical broker they had <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">nicknamed
Gyp the Blood, but distinctions had disappeared ; for the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">moment
they were samurai, chosen from several hundred for their <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">triumphant
resistance to the storm. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
gala dinner, overhung sardonically with lanterns and stream- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ers,
was interrupted by great communal slides across the room, pre- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">cipitate
retirements and spilled wine, while the ship roared and com- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">plained
that under the panoply of a palace it was a ship after all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Upstairs
afterward a dozen couples tried to dance, shuffling and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">galloping
here and there in a crazy fandango, thrust around fan- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tastically
by a will alien to their own. In view of the condition of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tortured
hundreds below, there grew to be something indecent about <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">it,
like a revel in a house of mourning, and presently there was an <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">egress
of the ever-dwindling survivors toward the bar. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As
the evening passed, Eva's feeling of unreality increased. Adrian <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">had
disappeared presumably with Miss D'Amido and her mind, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">distorted
by illness and champagne, began to enlarge upon the fact ; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">annoyance
changed slowly to dark and brooding anger, grief to des- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">peration.
She had never tried to bind Adrian, never needed to for <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">they
were serious people, with all sorts of mutual interests, and satis- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">fied
with each other but this was a breach of the contract, this <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">was
cruel. How could he think that she didn't know ? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
seemed several hours later that he leaned over her chair in the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">bar
where she was giving some woman an impassioned lecture upon <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">babies,
and said: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Eva,
we'd better turn in." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Her
lip curled. "So that you can leave me there and then come <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">back
to your eighteen-year " <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Be
quiet." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
won't come to bed." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Very
well. Good night." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">More
time passed and the people at the table changed. The stew- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ards
wanted to close up the room, and thinking of Adrian her <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Adrian
off somewhere saying tender things to someone fresh and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">lovely,
Eva began to cry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"But
he's gone to bed," her last attendants assured her. "We saw <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">him
go." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
shook her head. She knew better. Adrian was lost. The long <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">seven-year
dream was broken. Probably she was punished for some- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">thing
she had done ; as this thought occurred to her the shrieking <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">timbers
overhead began to mutter that she had guessed at last. This <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">was
for the selfishness to her mother, who hadn't wanted her to marry <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Adrian
; for all the sins and omissions of her life. She stood up, say- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ing
she must go out and get some air. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
deck was dark and drenched with wind and rain. The ship <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">pounded
through valleys, fleeing from black mountains of water <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">that
roared toward it. Looking out at the night, Eva saw that there <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">was
no chance for them unless she could make atonement, propitiate <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
storm. It was Adrian's love that was demanded of her. Deliber- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ately
she unclasped her pearl necklace, lifted it to her lips for she <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">knew
that with it went the freshest, fairest part of her life and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">flung
it out into the gale. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ill
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
Adrian awoke it was lunchtime, but he knew that some <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">heavier
sound than the bugle had called him up from his deep sleep. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Then
he realized that the trunk had broken loose from its lashings <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
was being thrown back and forth between a wardrobe and Eva's <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">bed.
With an exclamation he jumped up, but she was unharmed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">still
in costume and stretched out in deep sleep. When the steward <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">had
helped him secure the trunk, Eva opened a single eye. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"How
are you?" he demanded, sitting on the side of her bed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
closed the eye, opened it again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"We're
in a hurricane now," he told her. "The steward says it's <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
worst he's seen in twenty years." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"My
head," she muttered. "Hold my head." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"How?"
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"In
front. My eyes are going out. I think I'm dying." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Nonsense.
Do you want the doctor?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
gave a funny little gasp that frightened him ; he rang and sent <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
steward for the doctor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
young doctor was pale and tired. There was a stubble of beard <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">upon
his face. He bowed curtly as he came in and, turning to Adrian, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">said
with scant ceremony : <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"What's
the matter?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"My
wife doesn't feel well." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Well,
what is it you want a bromide?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
little annoyed by his shortness, Adrian said: "You'd better <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">examine
her and see what she needs." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"She
needs a bromide," said the doctor. "I've given orders that <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">she
is not to have any more to drink on this ship." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Why
not?" demanded Adrian in astonishment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Don't
you know what happened last night?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Why,
no, I was asleep." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Mrs.
Smith wandered around the boat for an hour, not knowing <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">what
she was doing. A sailor was set to follow her, and then the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">medical
stewardess tried to get her to bed, and your wife insulted <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">her."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Oh,
my heavens!" cried Eva faintly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"The
nurse and I had both been up all night with Steward Carton, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">who
died this morning." He picked up his case. "I'll send down a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">bromide
for Mrs. Smith. Good-by." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For
a few minutes there was silence in the cabin. Then Adrian <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">put
his arm around her quickly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Never
mind," he said. "We'll straighten it out." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
remember now." Her voice was an awed whisper. "My pearls. 1 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">threw
them overboard." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Threw
them overboard ! " <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Then
I began looking for you." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"But
I was here in bed." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
didn't believe it ; I thought you were with that girl." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"She
collapsed during dinner. I was taking a nap down here." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Frowning,
he rang the bell and asked the steward for luncheon <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
a bottle of beer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Sorry,
but we can't serve any beer to your cabin, sir." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
he went out Adrian exploded: "This is an outrage. You <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">were
simply crazy from that storm and they can't be so high-handed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I'll
see the captain." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Isn't
that awful?" Eva murmured. "The poor man died." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
turned over and began to sob into her pillow. There was a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">knock
at the door. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Can
I come in?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
assiduous Mr. Butterworth, surprisingly healthy and immacu- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">late,
came into the crazily tipping cabin. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Well,
how's the mystic?" he demanded of Eva. "Do you remem- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ber
praying to the elements in the bar last night?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
don't want to remember anything about last night." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">They
told him about the stewardess, and with the telling the situa- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tion
lightened ; they all laughed together. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I'm
going to get you some beer to have with your luncheon," <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Butterworth
said. "You ought to get up on deck." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Don't
go," Eva said. "You look so cheerful and nice." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Just
for ten minutes." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
he had gone, Adrian rang for two baths. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"The
thing is to put on our best clothes and walk proudly three <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">times
around the deck," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Yes."
After a moment she added abstractedly: "I like that <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">young
man. He was awfully nice to me last night when you'd dis- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">appeared."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
bath steward appeared with the information that bathing <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">was
too dangerous today. They were in the midst of the wildest <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">hurricane
on the North Atlantic in ten years ; there were two broken <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">arms
this morning from attempts to take baths. An elderly lady had <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">been
thrown down a staircase and was not expected to live. Further- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">more,
they had received the SOS signal from several boats this <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">morning.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Will
we go to help them?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"They're
all behind us, sir, so we have to leave them to the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Mauretania.
If we tried to turn in this sea the portholes would be <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">smashed."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
array of calamities minimized their own troubles. Having <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">eaten
a sort of luncheon and drunk the beer provided by Butter- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">worth,
they dressed and went on deck. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Despite
the fact that it was only possible to progress step by step, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">holding
on to rope or rail, more people were abroad than on the day <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">before.
Fear had driven them from their cabins, where the trunks <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">bumped
and the waves pounded the portholes and they awaited <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">momentarily
the call to the boats. Indeed, as Adrian and Eva stood <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">on
the transverse deck above the second class, there was a bugle call, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">followed
by a gathering of stewards and stewardesses on the deck <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">below.
But the boat was sound ; it had outlasted one of its cargo <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Steward
James Carton was being buried at sea. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
was very British and sad. There were the rows of stiff, dis- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">ciplined
men and women standing in the driving rain, and there was <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">a
shape covered by the flag of the Empire that lived by the sea. The <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">chief
purser read the service, a hymn was sung, the body slid off into <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
hurricane. With Eva's burst of wild weeping for this humble end, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">some
last string snapped within her. Now she really didn't care. She <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">responded
eagerly when Butterworth suggested that he get some <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">champagne
to their cabin. Her mood worried Adrian ; she wasn't used <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">to
so much drinking and he wondered what he ought to do. At his <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">suggestion
that they sleep instead, she merely laughed, and the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">bromide
the doctor had sent stood untouched on the washstand. Pre- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tending
to listen to the insipidities of several Mr. Stacombs, he <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">watched
her ; to his surprise and discomfort she seemed on intimate <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
even sentimental terms with Butterworth, and he wondered if <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">this
was a form of revenge for his attention to Betsy D'Amido. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
cabin was full of smoke, the voices went on incessantly, the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">suspension
of activity, the waiting for the storm's end, was getting <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">on
his nerves. They had been at sea only four days ; it was like a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">year.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
two Mr. Stacombs left finally, but Butterworth remained. Eva <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">was
urging him to go for another bottle of champagne. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"We've
had enough," objected Adrian. "We ought to go to bed." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
won't go to bed!" she burst out. "You must be crazy! You <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">play
around all you want, and then, when I find somebody I I like, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">you
want to put me to bed." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You're
hysterical." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"On
the contrary, I've never been so sane." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
think you'd better leave us, Butterworth," Adrian said. "Eva <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">doesn't
know what she's saying." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"He
won't go. I won't let him go." She clasped Butterworth's <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">hand
passionately. "He's the only person that's been half decent to <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">me."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You'd
better go, Butterworth," repeated Adrian. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
young man looked at him uncertainly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"It
seems to me you're being unjust to your wife," he ventured. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"My
wife isn't herself." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"That's
no reason for bullying her." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Adrian
lost his temper. "You get out of here ! " he cried. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
two men looked at each other for a moment in silence. Then <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Butterworth
turned to Eva, said, "I'll be back later," and left the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">cabin.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Eva,
youVe got to pull yourself together," said Adrian when the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">door
closed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
didn't answer, looked at him from sullen, half-closed eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I'll
order dinner here for us both and then we'll try to get some <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">sleep."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
want to go up and send a wireless." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Who
to?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Some
Paris lawyer. I want a divorce." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
spite of his annoyance, he laughed. "Don't be silly." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Then
I want to see the children." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Well,
go and see them. I'll order dinner." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
waited for her in the cabin twenty minutes. Then impatiently <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">he
opened the door across the corridor ; the nurse told him that Mrs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Smith
had not been there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">With
a sudden prescience of disaster he ran upstairs, glanced in <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the
bar, the salons, even knocked at Butterworth's door. Then a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">quick
round of the decks, feeling his way through the black spray <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
rain. A sailor stopped him at a network of ropes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Orders
are no one goes by, sir. A wave has gone over the wireless <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">room."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Have
you seen a lady?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"There
was a young lady here " He stopped and glanced <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tround.
"Hello, she's gone." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"She
went up the stairs ! " Adrian said anxiously. "Up to the wire- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">less
room ! " <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
sailor ran up to the boat deck ; stumbling and slipping, Adrian <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">followed.
As he cleared the protected sides of the companionway, a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tremendous
body struck the boat a staggering blow and, as she keeled <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">over
to an angle of forty-five degrees, he was thrown in a helpless <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">roll
down the drenched deck, to bring up dizzy and bruised against a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">stanchion.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Eva!"
he called. His voice was soundless in the black storm. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Against
the faint light of the wireless-room window he saw the sailor <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">making
his way forward. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Eva!"
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
wind blew him like a sail up against a lifeboat. Then there <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">was
another shuddering crash, and high over his head, over the very <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">boat,
he saw a gigantic, glittering white wave, and in the split second <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">that
it balanced there he became conscious of Eva, standing beside <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">a
ventilator twenty feet away. Pushing out from the stanchion, he <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">lunged
desperately toward her, just as the wave broke with a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">smashing
roar. For a moment the rushing water was five feet deep, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">sweeping
with enormous force toward the side, and then a human <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">body
was washed against him, and frantically he clutched it and was <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">swept
with it back toward the rail. He felt his body bump against it, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">but
desperately he held on to his burden ; then, as the ship rocked <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">slowly
back, the two of them, still joined by his fierce grip, were <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">rolled
out exhausted on the wet planks. For a moment he knew no <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">more.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">IV
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Two
days later, as the boat train moved tranquilly south toward <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Paris,
Adrian tried to persuade his children to look out the window <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">at
the Norman countryside. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"It's
beautiful," he assured them. "All the little farms like toys. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Why,
in heaven's name, won't you look?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I
like the boat better," said Estelle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Her
parents exchanged an infanticidal glance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"The
boat is still rocking for me," Eva said with a shiver. "Is it <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">for
you ?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"No.
Somehow, it all seems a long way off. Even the passengers <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">looked
unfamiliar going through the customs." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Most
of them hadn't appeared above ground before." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
hesitated. "By the way, I cashed Butterworth's check for him." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"You're
a fool. You'll never see the money again." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"He
must have needed it pretty badly or he would not have come <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">to
me." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
pale and wan girl, passing along the corridor, recognized them <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and
put her head through the doorway. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"How
do you feel?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Awful."
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Me,
too," agreed Miss D'Amido. "I'm vainly hoping my fiance <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">will
recognize me at the Gare du Nord. Do you know two waves went <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">over
the wireless room?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"So
we heard," Adrian answered dryly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
passed gracefully along the corridor and out of their life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"The
real truth is that none of it happened," said Adrian after a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">moment.
"It was a nightmare an incredibly awful nightmare." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Then,
where are my pearls?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Darling,
there are better pearls in Paris. I'll take the respon- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">sibility
for those pearls. My real belief is that you saved the boat." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Adrian,
let's never get to know anyone else, but just stay together <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">always
just we two." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
tucked her arm under his and they sat close. "Who do you <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">suppose
those Adrian Smiths on the boat were?" he demanded. "It <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">certainly
wasn't me." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Nor
me." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"It
was two other people," he said, nodding to himself. "There are <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">so
many Smiths in this world." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-57224448736512987602020-01-13T09:20:00.003-08:002020-01-13T09:20:56.986-08:00The Bridal Party. A short story from F. Scott Fitzgerald<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwsr3ME3_ndqjprGvtAAKz4T5GSfS1q4dDNdIfn7bWhdhssN9GUQKsmoazosSsdQJtiqCcMXwAWWGjT3S3EpyhhTF8dTo0mciEsYMuHEK-XgE30q4qrCrwFnIgbUt6nx4APVo4PUl3wQ/s1600/tumblr_bca94214dcfcf66b74df7c557fbf4054_b3e3858d_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="623" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwsr3ME3_ndqjprGvtAAKz4T5GSfS1q4dDNdIfn7bWhdhssN9GUQKsmoazosSsdQJtiqCcMXwAWWGjT3S3EpyhhTF8dTo0mciEsYMuHEK-XgE30q4qrCrwFnIgbUt6nx4APVo4PUl3wQ/s640/tumblr_bca94214dcfcf66b74df7c557fbf4054_b3e3858d_640.jpg" width="466" /></a></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">THERE WAS
the usual insincere little note saying : "I wanted you</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to be the
first to know/ 7 It was a double shock to Michael, announc-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ing, as
it did, both the engagement and the imminent marriage;</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">which,
moreover, was to be held, not in New York, decently and far</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">away, but
here in Paris under his very nose, if that could be said to</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">extend
over the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Avenue
George-Cinq. The date was two weeks off, early in June.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At first
Michael was afraid and his stomach felt hollow. When he</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">left the
hotel that morning, the jemme de chambre, who was in love</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">with his
fine, sharp profile and his pleasant buoyancy, scented the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">hard
abstraction that had settled over him. He walked in a daze to</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">his bank,
he bought a detective story at Smith's on the Rue de Rivoli,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he
sympathetically stared for a while at a faded panorama of the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">battlefields
in a tourist-office window and cursed a Greek tout who</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">followed
him with a half -displayed packet of innocuous post cards</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">warranted
to be very dirty indeed.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But the
fear stayed with him, and after a while he recognized it</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">as the
fear that now he would never be happy. He had met Caroline</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dandy
when she was seventeen, possessed her young heart all</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">through
her first season in New York, and then lost her, slowly,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tragically,
uselessly, because he had no money and could make no</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">money ;
because, with all the energy and good will in the world, he</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">could not
find himself ; because, loving him still, Caroline had lost</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">faith and
begun to see him as something pathetic, futile and shabby,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">outside
the great, shining stream of life toward which she was in-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">evitably
drawn.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Since his
only support was that she loved him, he leaned weakly</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">on that ;
the support broke, but still he held on to it and was carried</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">out to
sea and washed up on the French coast with its broken pieces</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">still in
his hands. He carried them around with him in the form of</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">photographs
and packets of correspondence and a liking for a maud-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">lin
popular song called Among My Souvenirs. He kept clear of other</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">girls, as
if Caroline would somehow know it and reciprocate with a</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">faithful
heart. Her note informed him that he had lost her forever.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was a
fine morning. In front of the shops in the Rue de Cas-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tiglione,
proprietors and patrons were on the sidewalk gazing upward,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">for the
Graf Zeppelin, shining and glorious, symbol of escape and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">destruction
of escape, if necessary, through destruction glided in</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the Paris
sky. He heard a woman say in French that it would not</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">her
astonish if that commenced to let fall the bombs. Then he heard</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">another
voice, full of husky laughter, and the void in his stomach</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">froze.
Jerking about, he was face to face with Caroline Dandy and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">her
fianc6.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Why,
Michael ! Why, we were wondering where you were. I asked</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">at the
Guaranty Trust, and Morgan and Company, and finally sent</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a note to
the National City "</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why
didn't they back away? Why didn't they back right up,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">walking
backward down the Rue de Castiglione, across the Rue de</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rivoli,
through the Tuileries Gardens, still walking backward as fast</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">as they
could till they grew vague and faded out across the river ?</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"This
is Hamilton Rutherford, my fiance."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"We've
met before."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"At
Pat's, wasn't it?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"And
last spring in the Ritz Bar."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Michael,
where have you been keeping yourself?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Around
here." This agony. Previews of Hamilton Rutherford</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">flashed
before his eyes a quick series of pictures, sentences. He re-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">membered
hearing that he had bought a seat in 1920 for a hundred</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and
twenty-five thousand of borrowed money, and just before the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">break
sold it for more than half a million. Not handsome like</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael,
but vitally attractive, confident, authoritative, just the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">right
height over Caroline there Michael had always been too short</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">for
Caroline when they danced.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rutherford
was saying : "No, I'd like it very much if you'd come</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to the
bachelor dinner. I'm taking the Ritz Bar from nine o'clock on.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then
right after the wedding there'll be a reception and breakfast</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">at the
Hotel George-Cinq."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"And,
Michael, George Packman is giving a party day after</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tomorrow
at Chez Victor, and I want you to be sure and come. And</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">also to
tea Friday at Jebby West's ; she'd want to have you if she</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">knew
where you were. What's your hotel, so we can send you an in-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">vitation
? You see, the reason we decided to have it over here is be-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cause
mother has been sick in a nursing home here and the whole</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">clan is
in Paris. Then Hamilton's mother's being here too "</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
entire clan ; they had always hated him, except her mother ;</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">always
discouraged his courtship. What a little counter he was in</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">this game
of families and money ! Under his hat his brow sweated</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">with the
humiliation of the fact that for all his misery he was worth</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">just
exactly so many invitations. Frantically he began to mumble</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">something
about going away.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then it
happened Caroline saw deep into him, and Michael knew</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that she
saw. She saw through to his profound woundedness, and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">something
quivered inside her, died out along the curve of her mouth</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and in
her eyes. He had moved her. All the unforgettable impulses</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of first
love had surged up once more ; their hearts had in some way</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">touched
across two feet of Paris sunlight. She took her fiance's arm</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">suddenly,
as if to steady herself with the feel of it.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They
parted. Michael walked quickly for a minute; then he</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stopped,
pretending to look in a window, and saw them farther up</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the
street, walking fast into the Place Vendome, people with much</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to do.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He had
things to do also he had to get his laundry.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Nothing
will ever be the same again," he said to himself. "She</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">will
never be happy in her marriage and I will never be happy at all</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">any
more."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The two
vivid years of his love for Caroline moved back around</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">him like
years in Einstein's physics. Intolerable memories arose</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of rides
in the Long Island moonlight ; of a happy time at Lake</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Placid
with her cheeks so cold there, but warm just underneath the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">surface;
of a despairing afternoon in a little cafe on Forty-eighth</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Street in
the last sad months when their marriage had come to seem</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">impossible.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Come
in," he said aloud.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
concierge with a telegram ; brusque because Mr. Curly's</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">clothes
were a little shabby. Mr. Curly gave few tips; Mr. Curly was</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">obviously
a petit client.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
read the telegram.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">u An
answer?" the concierge asked.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"No,"
said Michael, and then, on an impulse: "Look."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">u Too bad
too bad," said the concierge. "Your grandfather is</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">dead."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Not
too bad," said Michael. "It means that I come into a quarter</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of a
million dollars."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Too late
by a single month ; after the first flush of the news his</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">misery
was deeper than ever. Lying awake in bed that night, he lis-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tened
endlessly to the long caravan of a circus moving through the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">street
from one Paris fair to another.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When the
last van had rumbled out of hearing and the corners of</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the
furniture were pastel blue with the dawn, he was still thinking</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of the
look in Caroline's eyes that morning the look that seemed</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to say:
"Oh, why couldn't you have done something about it? Why</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">couldn't
you have been stronger, made me marry you? Don't you</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">see how
sad I am ?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael's
fists clenched.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Well,
I won't give up till the last moment," he whispered. "I've</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">had all
the bad luck so far, and maybe it's turned at last. One takes</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">what one
can get, up to the limit of one's strength, and if I can't have</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">her, at
least she'll go into this marriage with some of me in her</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">heart."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">II</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Accordingly
he went to the party at Chez Victor two days later,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">upstairs
and into the little salon off the bar where the party was to</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">assemble
for cocktails. He was early ; the only other occupant was a</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tall lean
man of fifty. They spoke.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You
waiting for George Packman's party?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Yes.
My name's Michael Curly."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"My
name's "</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
failed to catch the name. They ordered a drink, and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
supposed that the bride and groom were having a gay time.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Too
much so," the other agreed, frowning. "I don't see how they</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stand it.
We all crossed on the boat together ; five days of that crazy</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">life and
then two .weeks of Paris. You" he hesitated, smiling faintly</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"you'll
excuse me for saying that your generation drinks too</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">much."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Not
Caroline."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"No,
not Caroline. She seems to take only a cocktail and a glass</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of
champagne, and then she's had enough, thank God. But Hamilton</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">drinks
too much and all this crowd of young people drink too much.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Do you
live in Paris ?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"For
the moment," said Michael.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
don't like Paris. My wife that is to say, my ex-wife, Hamilton's</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">mother
lives in Paris."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You're
Hamilton Rutherford's father?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
have that honor. And I'm not denying that I'm proud of what</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he's done
; it was just a general comment."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Of
course."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
glanced up nervously as four people came in. He felt sud-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">denly
that his dinner coat was old and shiny ; he had ordered a new</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">one that
morning. The people who had come in were rich and at home</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in their
richness with one another a dark, lovely girl with a hysteri-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cal
little laugh whom he had met before ; two confident men whose</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">jokes
referred invariably to last night's scandal and tonight's po-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tentialities,
as if they had important roles in a play that extended</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">indefinitely
into the past and the future. When Caroline arrived,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
had scarcely a moment of her, but it was enough to note</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that,
like all the others, she was strained and tired. She was pale</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">beneath
her rouge ; there were shadows under her eyes. With a mix-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ture of
relief and wounded vanity, he found himself placed far from</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">her and
at another table ; he needed a moment to adjust himself to</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">his
surroundings. This was not like the immature set in which he</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and
Caroline had moved ; the men were more than thirty and had an</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">air of
sharing the best of this world's good. Next to him was Jebby</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">West,
whom he knew ; and, on the other side, a jovial man who im-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">mediately
began to talk to Michael about a stunt for the bachelor</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">dinner:
They were going to hire a French girl to appear with an</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">actual
baby in her arms, crying: "Hamilton, you can't desert me</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">now!"
The idea seemed stale and unamusing to Michael, but its</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">originator
shook with anticipatory laughter.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Farther
up the table there was talk of the market another drop</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">today,
the most appreciable since the crash; people were kidding</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rutherford
about it: "Too bad, old man. You better not get married,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">after
all."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
asked the man on his left, "Has he lost a lot?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Nobody
knows. He's heavily involved, but he's one of the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">smartest
young men in Wall Street. Anyhow, nobody ever tells you</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the
truth."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was a
champagne dinner from the start, and toward the end it</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">reached a
pleasant level of conviviality, but Michael saw that all</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">these
people were too weary to be exhilarated by any ordinary stimu-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">lant ;
for weeks they had drunk cocktails before meals like Ameri-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cans,
wines and brandies like Frenchmen, beer like Germans, whisky-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and-soda
like the English, and as they were no longer in the twen-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ties,
this preposterous melange, that was like some gigantic cocktail</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in a
nightmare, served only to make them temporarily less conscious</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of the mistakes
of the night before. Which is to say that it was not</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">really a
gay party ; what gayety existed was displayed in the few who</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">drank
nothing at all.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
Michael was not tired, and the champagne stimulated him and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">made his
misery less acute. He had been away from New York for</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">more than
eight months and most of the dance music was unfamiliar</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to him,
but at the first bars of the "Painted Doll", to which he and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Caroline
had moved through so much happiness and despair the pre-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">vious
summer, he crossed to Caroline's table and asked her to dance.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She was
lovely in a dress of thin ethereal blue, and the proximity</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of her
crackly yellow hair, of her cool and tender gray eyes, turned</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">his body
clumsy and rigid ; he stumbled with their first step on the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">floor. For
a moment it seemed that there was nothing to say; he</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wanted to
tell her about his inheritance, but the idea seemed abrupt</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">unprepared
for.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Michael,
it's so nice to be dancing with you again."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He smiled
grimly.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm
so happy you came," she continued. "I was afraid maybe</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you'd be
silly and stay away. Now we can be just good friends and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">natural
together. Michael, I want you and Hamilton to like each</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">other."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
engagement was making her stupid ; he had never heard her</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">make such
a series of obvious remarks before.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
could kill him without a qualm," he said pleasantly, "but he</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">looks
like a good man. He's fine. What I want to know is, what</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">happens
to people like me who aren't able to forget?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As he
said this he could not prevent his mouth from drooping</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">suddenly,
and glancing up, Caroline saw, and her heart quivered</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">violently,
as it had the other morning.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Do
you mind so much, Michael?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Yes."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For a
second as he said this, in a voice that seemed to have come</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">up from
his shoes, they were not dancing ; they were simply clinging</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">together.
Then she leaned away from him and twisted her mouth</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">into a
lovely smile.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
didn't know what to do at first, Michael. I told Hamilton about</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you that
I'd cared for you an awful lot but it didn't worry him,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and he
was right. Because I'm over you now yes, I am. And you'll</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wake up
some sunny morning and be over me just like that."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He shook
his head stubbornly.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh,
yes. We weren't for each other. I'm pretty flighty, and I need</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">somebody
like Hamilton to decide things. It was that more than</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the
question of of "</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Of
money." Again he was on the point of telling her what had</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">happened,
but again something told him it was not the time.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Then
how do you account for what happened when we met the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">other
day," he demanded helplessly "what happened just now?</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When we
just pour toward each other like we used to as if we were</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">one
person, as if the same blood was flowing through both of us?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh,
don't," she begged him. "You mustn't talk like that ; every-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thing's
decided now. I love Hamilton with all my heart. It's just that</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
remember certain things in the past and I feel sorry for you for</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">us for
the way we were."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Over her
shoulder, Michael saw a man come toward them to cut</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in. In a
panic he danced her away, but inevitably the man came on.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I've
got to see you alone, if only for a minute," Michael said</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">quickly.
"When can I ?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'll
be at Jebby West's tea tomorrow," she whispered as a hand</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">fell
politely upon Michael's shoulder.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But he
did not talk to her at Jebby West's tea. Rutherford stood</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">next to
her, and each brought the other into all conversations. They</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">left
early. The next morning the wedding cards arrived in the first</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">mail.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then
Michael, grown desperate with pacing up and down his</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">room,
determined on a bold stroke; he wrote to Hamilton Ruther-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ford,
asking him for a rendezvous the following afternoon. In a</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">short
telephone communication Rutherford agreed, but for a day</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">later
than Michael had asked. And the wedding was only six days</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">away.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They were
to meet in the bar of the Hotel Jena. Michael knew</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">what he
would say: "See here, Rutherford, do you realize the re-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">sponsibility
you're taking in going through with this marriage? Do</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you
realize the harvest of trouble and regret you're sowing in per-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">suading a
girl into something contrary to the instincts of her heart?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He would
explain that the barrier between Caroline and himself had</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">been an
artificial one and was now removed, and demand that the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">matter be
put up to Caroline frankly before it was too late.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rutherford
would be angry, conceivably there would be a scene,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">but
Michael felt that he was fighting for his life now.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He found
Rutherford in conversation with an older man, whom</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
had met at several of the wedding parties.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
saw what happened to most of my friends," Rutherford was</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">saying,
"and I decided it wasn't going to happen to me. It isn't so</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">difficult
; if you take a girl with common sense, and tell her what's</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">what, and
do your stuff damn well, and play decently square with</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">her, it's
a marriage. If you stand for any nonsense at the beginning,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">it's one
of these arrangements within five years the man gets out,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">or else
the girl gobbles him up and you have the usual mess."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Right!"
agreed his companion enthusiastically. "Hamilton, boy,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you're
right."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael's
blood boiled slowly.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Doesn't
it strike you," he inquired coldly, "that your attitude</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">went out
of fashion about a hundred years ago?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"No,
it didn't," said Rutherford pleasantly, but impatiently. "I'm</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">as modern
as anybody. I'd get married in an aeroplane next Satur-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">day if
it'd please my girl."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
don't mean that way of being modern. You can't take a sensitive</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">woman
"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Sensitive?
Women aren't so darn sensitive. It's fellows like you</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">who are
sensitive ; it's fellows like you they exploit all your devo-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tion and
kindness and all that. They read a couple of books and see</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a few
pictures because they haven't got anything else to do, and then</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">they say
they're finer in grain than you are, and to prove it they take</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the bit
in their teeth and tear off for a fare-you-well just about as</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">sensitive
as a fire horse."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Caroline
happens to be sensitive," said Michael in a clipped</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">voice.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At this
point the other man got up to go ; when the dispute about</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the check
had been settled and they were alone, Rutherford leaned</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">back to
Michael as if a question had been asked him.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Caroline's
more than sensitive," he said. "She's got sense."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His
combative eyes, meeting Michael's, flickered with a gray light.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"This
all sounds pretty crude to you, Mr. Curly, but it seems to me</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that the
average man nowadays just asks to be made a monkey of by</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">some
woman who doesn't even get any fun out of reducing him to</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that
level. There are darn few men who possess their wives any more,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">but I am
going to be one of them."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To
Michael it seemed time to bring the talk back to the actual</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">situation:
"Do you realize the responsibility you're taking?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
certainly do," interrupted Rutherford. "I'm not afraid of re-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">sponsibility.
I'll make the decisions fairly, I hope, but anyhow</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">they'll
be final."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What
if you didn't start right?" said Michael impetuously. "What</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">if your
marriage isn't founded on mutual love?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
think I see what you mean," Rutherford said, still pleasant.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"And
since you've brought it up, let me say that if you and Caroline</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">had
married, it wouldn't have lasted three years. Do you know what</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">your
affair was founded on? On sorrow. You got sorry for each other.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sorrow's
a lot of fun for most women and for some men, but it seems</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to me
that a marriage ought to be based on hope." He looked at his</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">watch and
stood up.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I've
got to meet Caroline. Remember, you're coming to the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">bachelor
dinner day after tomorrow."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
felt the moment slipping away. "Then Caroline's personal</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">feelings
don't count with you?" he demanded fiercely.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Caroline's
tired and upset. But she has what she wants, and that's</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the main
thing."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Are
you referring to yourself ?" demanded Michael incredulously.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Yes."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"May
I ask how long she's wanted you?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"About
two years." Before Michael could answer, he was gone.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">During
the next two days Michael floated in an abyss of helpless-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ness. The
idea haunted him that he had left something undone that</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">would
sever this knot drawn tighter under his eyes. He phoned</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Caroline,
but she insisted that it was physically impossible for her</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to see
him until the day before the wedding, for which day she</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">granted
him a tentative rendezvous. Then he went to the bachelor</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">dinner,
partly in fear of an evening alone at his hotel, partly from a</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">feeling
that by his presence at that function he was somehow nearer</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to
Caroline, keeping her in sight.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Ritz
Bar had been prepared for the occasion by French and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">American
banners and by a great canvas covering one wall, against</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">which the
guests were invited to concentrate their proclivities in</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">breaking
glasses.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the
first cocktail, taken at the bar, there were many slight spill-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ings from
many trembling hands, but later, with the champagne,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">there was
a rising tide of laughter and occasional bursts of song.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
was surprised to find what a difference his new dinner</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">coat, his
new silk hat, his new, proud linen made in his estimate of</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">himself ;
he felt less resentment toward all these people for being so</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">rich and
assured. For the first time since he had left college he felt</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">rich and
assured himself; he felt that he was part of all this, and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">even
entered into the scheme of Johnson, the practical joker, for the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">appearance
of the woman betrayed, now waiting tranquilly in the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">room
across the hall.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"We
don't want to go too heavy," Johnson said, "because I imagine</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ham's had
a pretty anxious day already. Did you see Fullman Oil's</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">sixteen
points off this morning?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Will
that matter to him?" Michael asked, trying to keep the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">interest
out of his voice.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Naturally.
He's in heavily ; he's always in everything heavily. So</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">far he's
had luck ; anyhow, up to a month ago."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
glasses were filled and emptied faster now, and men were</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">shouting
at one another across the narrow table. Against the bar a</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">group of
ushers was being photographed, and the flash light surged</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">through
the room in a stifling cloud.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Now's
the time," Johnson said. "You're to stand by the door, re-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">member,
and we're both to try and keep her from coming in just</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">till we
get everybody's attention."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He went
on out into the corridor, and Michael waited obediently</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">by the
door. Several minutes passed. Then Johnson reappeared with</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a curious
expression on his face.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"There's
something funny about this."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Isn't
the girl there?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"She's
there all right, but there's another woman there, too ; and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">it's
nobody we engaged either. She wants to see Hamilton Ruther-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ford, and
she looks as if she had something on her mind."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They went
out into the hall. Planted firmly in a chair near the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">door sat
an American girl a little the worse for liquor, but with a</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">determined
expression on her face. She looked up at them with a</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">jerk of
her head.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Well,
j'tell him?" she demanded. "The name is Marjorie Collins,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and he'll
know it. I've come a long way, and I want to see him now</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and
quick, or there's going to be more trouble than you ever saw."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She rose
unsteadily to her feet.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You
go in and tell Ham," whispered Johnson to Michael. "Maybe</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he'd
better get out. I'll keep her here."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Back at
the table, Michael leaned close to Rutherford's ear and,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">with a
certain grimness, whispered :</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"A
girl outside named Marjorie Collins says she wants to see you.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She looks
as if she wanted to make trouble."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hamilton
Rutherford blinked and his mouth fell ajar ; then slowly</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the lips
came together in a straight line and he said in a crisp</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">voice :</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Please
keep her there. And send the head barman to me right</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">away."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
spoke to the barman, and then, without returning to the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">table,
asked quietly for his coat and hat. Out in the hall again, he</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">passed
Johnson and the girl without speaking and went out into the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rue
Cambon. Calling a cab, he gave the address of Caroline's hotel.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His place
was beside her now. Not to bring bad news, but simply</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to be
with her when her house of cards came falling around her head.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rutherford
had implied that he was soft well, he was hard enough</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">not to
give up the girl he loved without taking advantage of every</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">chance
within the pale of honor. Should she turn away from Ruth-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">erford,
she would find him there.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She was
in ; she was surprised when he called, but she was still</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">dressed
and would be down immediately. Presently she appeared in</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a dinner
gown, holding two blue telegrams in her hand. They sat</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">down in
armchairs in the deserted lobby.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"But,
Michael, is the dinner over?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
wanted to see you, so I came away."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm
glad." Her voice was friendly, but matter-of-fact. "Because</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I'd just
phoned your hotel that I had fittings and rehearsals all day</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tomorrow.
Now we can have our talk after all."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You're
tired," he guessed. "Perhaps I shouldn't have come."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"No.
I was waiting up for Hamilton. Telegrams that may be im-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">portant.
He said he might go on somewhere, and that may mean</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">any hour,
so I'm glad I have someone to talk to."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
winced at the impersonality in the last phrase.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Don't
you care when he gets home?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Naturally,"
she said, laughing, "but I haven't got much say</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">about it,
have I?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Why
not?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
couldn't start by telling him what he could and couldn't</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">do."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Why
not?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"He
wouldn't stand for it."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"He
seems to want merely a housekeeper," said Michael ironi-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cally.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Tell
me about your plans, Michael," she asked quickly.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"My plans?
I can't see any future after the day after tomorrow.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The only
real plan I ever had was to love you."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Their
eyes brushed past each other's, and the look he knew so</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">well was
staring out at him from hers. Words flowed quickly from</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">his heart
:</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Let
me tell you just once more how well I've loved you, never</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wavering
for a moment, never thinking of another girl. And now</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">when I
think of all the years ahead without you, without any hope,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I don't
want to live, Caroline darling. I used to dream about our</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">home, our
children, about holding you in my arms and touching your</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">face and
hands and hair that used to belong to me, and now I just</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">can't
wake up."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Caroline
was crying softly. "Poor Michael poor Michael." Her</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">hand
reached out and her fingers brushed the lapel of his dinner</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">coat.
"I was so sorry for you the other night. You looked so thin,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and as if
you needed a new suit and somebody to take care of you."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She
sniffled and looked more closely at his coat. "Why, you've got</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a new
suit ! And a new silk hat ! Why, Michael, how swell ! " She</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">laughed,
suddenly cheerful through her tears. "You must have come</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">into
money, Michael ; I never saw you so well turned out."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For a
moment, at her reaction, he hated his new clothes.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
have come into money," he said. "My grandfather left me about</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a quarter
of a million dollars."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Why,
Michael," she cried, "how perfectly swell I I can't tell you</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">how glad
I am. I've always thought you were the sort of person who</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ought to
have money."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Yes,
just too late to make a difference."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
revolving door from the street groaned around and Hamilton</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rutherford
came into the lobby. His face was flushed, his eyes were</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">restless
and impatient.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Hello,
darling; hello, Mr. Curly." He bent and kissed Caroline.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
broke away for a minute to find out if I had any telegrams. I see</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you've
got them there." Taking them from her, he remarked to</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Curly,
"That was an odd business there in the bar, wasn't it ? Espe-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cially as
I understand some of you had a joke fixed up in the same</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">line."
He opened one of the telegrams, closed it and turned to Caro-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">line with
the divided expression of a man carrying two things in his</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">head at
once.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"A
girl I haven't seen for two years turned up," he said. "It seemed</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to be
some clumsy form of blackmail, for I haven't and never have</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">had any
sort of obligation toward her whatever."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What
happened?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"The
head barman had a Surete Generate man there in ten minutes</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and it
was settled in the hall. The French blackmail laws make ours</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">look like
a sweet wish, and I gather they threw a scare into her that</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">shell
remember. But it seems wiser to tell you."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Are
you implying that I mentioned the matter?" said Michael</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stiffly.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"No,"
Rutherford said slowly. "No, you were just going to be on</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">hand. And
since you're here, I'll tell you some news that will interest</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you even
more."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He handed
Michael one telegram and opened the other.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"This
is in code," Michael said.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"So
is this. But I've got to know all the words pretty well this last</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">week. The
two of them together mean that I'm due to start life all</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">over."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
saw Caroline's face grow a shade paler, but she sat quiet</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">as a
mouse.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"It
was a mistake and I stuck to it too long," continued Ruth-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">erford.
"So you see I don't have all the luck, Mr. Curly. By the way,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">they tell
me you've come into money."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Yes,"
said Michael.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"There
we are, then." Rutherford turned to Caroline. "You under-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stand,
darling, that I'm not joking or exaggerating. I've lost almost</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">every
cent I had and I'm starting life over."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two pairs
of eyes were regarding her Rutherford's noncommittal</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and
unrequiring, Michael's hungry, tragic, pleading. In a minute she</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">had
raised herself from the chair and with a little cry thrown herself</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">into
Hamilton Rutherford's arms.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh,
darling," she cried, "what does it matter! It's better; I like</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">it
better, honestly I do ! I want to start that way ; I want to ! Oh,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">please
don't worry or be sad even for a minute ! "</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"All
right, baby," said Rutherford. His hand stroked her hair</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">gently for
a moment ; then he took his arm from around her.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I
promised to join the party for an hour," he said. "So I'll say</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">good
night, and I want you to go to bed soon and get a good sleep.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Good
night, Mr. Curly. I'm sorry to have let you in for all these</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">financial
matters."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
Michael had already picked up his hat and cane. "I'll go</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">along
with you," he said.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">III</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was
such a fine morning. Michael's cutaway hadn't been de-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">livered,
so he felt rather uncomfortable passing before the cameras</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and
moving-picture machines in front of the little church on the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Avenue
George-Cinq.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was
such a clean, new church that it seemed unforgivable not</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to be
dressed properly, and Michael, white and shaky after a sleep-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">less
night, decided to stand in the rear. From there he looked at the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">back of
Hamilton Rutherford, and the lacy, filmy back of Caroline,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and the
fat back of George Packman, which looked unsteady, as if</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">it wanted
to lean against the bride and groom.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
ceremony went on for a long time under the gay flags and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pennons
overhead, under the thick beams of June sunlight slanting</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">down
through the tall windows upon the well-dressed people.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As the
procession, headed by the bride and groom, started down</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the
aisle, Michael realized with alarm he was just where everyone</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">would
dispense with their parade stiffness, become informal and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">speak to
him.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So it
turned out. Rutherford and Caroline spoke first to him;</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rutherford
grim with the strain of being married, and Caroline love-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">lier than
he had ever seen her, floating all softly down through the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">friends
and relatives of her youth, down through the past and for-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ward to
the future by the sunlit door.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
managed to murmur, "Beautiful, simply beautiful," and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">then
other people passed and spoke to him old Mrs. Dandy,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">straight
from her sickbed and looking remarkably well, or carrying</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">it off
like the very fine old lady she was; and Rutherford's father</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and
mother, ten years divorced, but walking side by side and look-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ing made
for each other and proud. Then all Caroline's sisters and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">their
husbands and her little nephews in Eton suits, and then a long</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">parade,
all speaking to Michael because he was still standing par-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">alyzed
just at that point where the procession broke.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He
wondered what would happen now. Cards had been issued for</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a
reception at the George-Cinq ; an expensive enough place, heaven</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">knew.
Would Rutherford try to go through with that on top of those</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">disastrous
telegrams? Evidently, for the procession outside was</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">streaming
up there through the June morning, three by three and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">four by
four. On the corner the long dresses of girls, five abreast,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">fluttered
many-colored in the wind. Girls had become gossamer</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">again,
perambulatory flora; such lovely fluttering dresses in the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">bright
noon wind.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
needed a drink ; he couldn't face that reception line with-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">out a
drink. Diving into a side doorway of the hotel, he asked for the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">bar,
whither a chasseur led him through half a kilometer of new</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">American-looking
passages.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But how
did it happen? the bar was full. There were ten</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">fifteen
men and two four girls, all from the wedding, all needing</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a drink.
There were cocktails and champagne in the bar; Ruther-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ford's
cocktails and champagne, as it turned out, for he had engaged</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the whole
bar and the ballroom and the two great reception rooms</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and all
the stairways leading up and down, and windows looking out</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">over the
whole square block of Paris. By and by Michael went and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">joined
the long, slow drift of the receiving line. Through a flowery</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">mist of
"Such a lovely wedding," "My dear, you were simply lovely,"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You're
a lucky man, Rutherford" he passed down the line. When</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
came to Caroline, she took a single step forward and kissed</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">him on
the lips, but he felt no contact in the kiss ; it was unreal and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he
floated on away from it. Old Mrs. Dandy, who had always liked</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">him, held
his hand for a minute and thanked him for the flowers he</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">had sent
when he heard she was ill.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm
so sorry not to have written ; you know, we old ladies are</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">grateful
for " The flowers, the fact that she had not written, the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wedding
Michael saw that they all had the same relative impor-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tance to
her now ; she had married off five other children and seen</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">two of
the marriages go to pieces, and this scene, so poignant, so con-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">fusing to
Michael, appeared to her simply a familiar charade in which</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she had
played her part before.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A buffet
luncheon with champagne was already being served at</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">small
tables and there was an orchestra playing in the empty ball-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">room.
Michael sat down with Jebby West ; he was still a little em-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">barrassed
at not wearing a morning coat, but he perceived now that</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he was
not alone in the omission and felt better. "Wasn't Caroline</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">divine?"
Jebby West said. "So entirely self-possessed. I asked her</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">this
morning if she wasn't a little nervous at stepping off like this.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And she
said, Why should I be? I've been after him for two years,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and now
I'm just happy, that's all.' "</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"It
must be true," said Michael gloomily.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What
you just said."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He had been
stabbed, but, rather to his distress, he did not feel</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the
wound.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He asked
Jebby to dance. Out on the floor, Rutherford's father</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and
mother were dancing together.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"It
makes me a little sad, that," she said. "Those two hadn't met</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">for years
; both of them were married again and she divorced again.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She went
to the station to meet him when he came over for Caroline'*</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wedding,
and invited him to stay at her house in the Avenue du Bois</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">with a
whole lot of other people, perfectly proper, but he was afraid</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">his wife
would hear about it and not like it, so he went to a hotel</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Don't you
think that's sort of sad?"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">An hour
or so later Michael realized suddenly that it was after-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">noon. In
one corner of the ballroom an arrangement of screens like</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a
moving-picture stage had been set up and photographers were tak-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ing
official pictures of . , still as</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">death and
pale as wax under the bright lights, appeared, to' the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">dancers
circling the modulated semidarkness of the ballroom, like</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">those
jovial or sinister groups that one comes upon in The Old Mill</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">at an
amusement park.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After had
been photographed, there was a group</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of the
ushers ; then the bridesmaids, the families, the children. Later,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Caroline,
active and excited, having long since abandoned the repose</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">implicit
in her flowing dress and great bouquet, came and plucked</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
off the floor.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Now
we'll have them take one of just old friends." Her voice im-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">plied
that this was best, most intimate of all. "Come here, Jebby,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">George
not you, Hamilton; this is just my friends Sally "</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A little
after that, what remained of formality disappeared and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the hours
flowed easily down the profuse stream of champagne. In</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the
modern fashion, Hamilton Rutherford sat at the table with his</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">arm about
an old girl of his and assured his guests, which included</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">not a few
bewildered but enthusiastic Europeans, that the party was</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">not
nearly at an end ; it was to reassemble at Zelli's after midnight.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
saw Mrs. Dandy, not quite over her illness, rise to go and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">become
caught in polite group after group, and he spoke of it to one</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of her
daughters, who thereupon forcibly abducted her mother and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">called
her car. Michael felt very considerate and proud of himself</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">after
having done this, and drank much more champagne.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"It's
amazing," George Packman was telling him enthusiastically.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"This
show will cost Ham about five thousand dollars, and I under-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stand
they'll be just about his last. But did he countermand a bottle</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of
champagne or a flower? Not he! He happens to have it that</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">young man.
Do you know that T. G. Vance offered him a salary of</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">fifty
thousand dollars a year ten minutes before the wedding</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">this
morning? In another year he'll be back with the million-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">aires."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
conversation was interrupted by a plan to carry Rutherford</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">out on
communal shoulders a plan which six of them put into</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">effect,
and then stood in the four-o'clock sunshine waving good-by</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to the
bride and groom. But there must have been a mistake some-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">where,
for five minutes later Michael saw both bride and groom</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">descending
the stairway to the reception, each with a glass of cham-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pagne
held defiantly on high.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"This
is our way of doing things," he thought. "Generous and fresh</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and free
; a sort of Virgina-plantation hospitality, but at a different</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pace now,
nervous as a ticker tape."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Standing
unself-consciously in the middle of the room to see which</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">was the
American ambassador, he realized with a start that he hadn't</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">really
thought of Caroline for hours. He looked about him with a</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">sort of
alarm, and then he saw her across the room, very bright and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">young,
and radiantly happy. He saw Rutherford near her, looking at</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">her as if
he could never look long enough, and as Michael watched</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">them they
seemed to recede as he had wished them to do that day in</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the Rue
de Castiglione recede and fade off into joys and griefs of</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">their
own, into the years that would take the toll of Rutherford's fine</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pride and
Caroline's young, moving beauty; fade far away, so that</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">now he
could scarcely see them, as if they were shrouded in some-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thing as
misty as her white, billowing dress.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael
was cured. The ceremonial function, with its pomp and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">its
revelry, had stood for a sort of initiation into a life where even</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">his
regret could not follow them. All the bitterness melted out of</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">him suddenly
and the world reconstituted itself out of the youth and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">happiness
that was all around him, profligate as the spring sunshine.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He was
trying to remember which one of the bridesmaids he had</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">made a
date to dine with tonight as he walked forward to bid Ham-</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ilton and
Caroline Rutherford good-by</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52455971888394027.post-41910278047702914722020-01-13T09:19:00.001-08:002020-01-13T09:19:26.756-08:00TWO WRONGS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">TWO WRONGS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPoCF9QZ-sEynTcWgdOptKuknHf7vkD2x5i2lDMNGL-tA76KyTpkXPkzfbPcAzK_2jQ6EuZONx3D_KpX358OqM5WcfLWXxYzOQyq-IWU4suMn9PxUhoowVG_TpLTghfr2bqHgL8IsVg/s1600/tumblr_2f82285ea5734d9b6b13a6915d7b8033_bea7175f_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="826" data-original-width="651" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPoCF9QZ-sEynTcWgdOptKuknHf7vkD2x5i2lDMNGL-tA76KyTpkXPkzfbPcAzK_2jQ6EuZONx3D_KpX358OqM5WcfLWXxYzOQyq-IWU4suMn9PxUhoowVG_TpLTghfr2bqHgL8IsVg/s640/tumblr_2f82285ea5734d9b6b13a6915d7b8033_bea7175f_1280.jpg" width="504" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"LOOK AT those shoes,"
said Bill "twenty-eight dollars."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mr. Brancusi looked.
"Purty."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Made to order."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I knew you were a great swell.
You didn't get me up here to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">show me those shoes, did you?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I am not a great swell. Who
said I was a great swell?" demanded<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill. "Just because I've got
more education than most people in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">show business."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"And then, you know, you're a
handsome young fellow," said<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Brancusi dryly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Sure I am compared to you
anyhow. The girls think I must be<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">an actor, till they find out. . . .
Got a cigarette? What's more, I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">look like a man which is more than
most of these pretty boys round<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Times Square do."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Good-looking. Gentleman. Good
shoes. Shot with luck."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You're wrong there,"
objected Bill. "Brains. Three years nine<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">shows four big hits only one flop.
Where do you see any luck in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A little bored, Brancusi just gazed.
What he would have seen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">had he not made his eyes opaque and
taken to thinking about some-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thing else was a fresh-faced young Irishman
exuding aggressive-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ness and self-confidence until the
air of his office was thick with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Presently, Brancusi knew, Bill would
hear the sound of his own<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">voice and be ashamed and retire into
his other humor the quietly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">superior, sensitive one, the patron
of the arts, modelled on the in-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tellectuals of the Theatre Guild.
Bill McChesney had not quite de-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cided between the two, such blends
are seldom complete before<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thirty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Take Ames, take Hopkins, take
Harris take any of them," Bill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">insisted. "What have they got
on me? What's the matter? Do you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">want a drink?" seeing
Brancusi's glance wander toward the cabinet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">on the opposite wall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I never drink in the morning.
I just wondered who was it keeps<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">on knocking. You ought to make it
stop it. I get a nervous fidgets,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">kind of half crazy, with that kind
of thing."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill went quickly to the door and
threw it open.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Nobody," he said. . . .
"Hello! What do you want?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, I'm so sorry," a
voice answered; "I'm terribly sorry. I got<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">so excited and I didn't realize I
had this pencil in my hand."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What is it you want?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I want to see you, and the
clerk said you were busy. I have a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">letter for you from Alan Rogers, the
playwright and I wanted to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">give it to you personally."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm busy," said Bill.
"See Mr. Cadorna."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I did, but he wasn't very
encouraging, and Mr. Rogers said "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Brancusi, edging over restlessly,
took a quick look at her. She<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">was very young, with beautiful red
hair, and more character in her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">face than her chatter would indicate
; it did not occur to Mr. Bran-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cusi that this was due to her origin
in Delaney, South Carolina.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What shall I do?" she
inquired, quietly laying her future in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill's hands. "I had a letter
to Mr. Rogers, and he just gave me this<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">one to you."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Well, what do you want me to
do marry you?" exploded Bill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'd like to get a part in one
of your plays."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Then sit down and wait. I'm
busy. . . . Where's Miss Cohalan?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He rang a bell, looked once more,
crossly, at the girl and closed the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">door of his office. But during the interruption
his other mood had<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">come over him, and he resumed his
conversation with Brancusi in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the key of one who was hand in glove
with Reinhardt for the artistic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">future of the theatre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By 12:30 he had forgotten everything
except that he was going<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to be the greatest producer in the
world and that he had an engage-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ment to tell Sol Lincoln about it at
lunch. Emerging from his office,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he looked expectantly at Miss
Cohalan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Mr. Lincoln won't be able to
meet you," she said. "He jus' 'is<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">minute called."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Just this minute,"
repeated Bill, shocked. "All right. Just cross<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">him off that list for Thursday
night."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Miss Cohalan drew a line on a sheet
of paper before her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Mr. McChesney, now you haven't
forgotten me, have you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He turned to the red-headed girl.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"No," he said vaguely, and
then to Miss Cohalan: "That's all<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">right : ask him for Thursday anyhow.
To hell with him."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He did not want to lunch alone. He
did not like to do anything<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">alone now, because contacts were too
much fun when one had<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">prominence and power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"If you would just let me talk
to you two minutes " she began.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Afraid I can't now."
Suddenly he realized that she was the most<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">beautiful person he had ever seen in
his life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He stared at her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Mr. Rogers told me"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Come and have a spot of lunch
with me," he said, and then, with<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">an air of great hurry, he gave Miss
Cohalan some quick and con-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tradictory instructions and held
open the door.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They stood on Forty-second Street
and he breathed his pre-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">empted air there is only enough air
there for a few people at a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">time. It was November and the first
exhilarating rush of the season<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">was over, but he could look east and
see the electric sign of one of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">his plays, and west and see another.
Around the corner was the one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he had put on with Brancusi the last
time he would produce any-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thing except alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They went to the Bedford, where
there was a to-do of waiters and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">captains as he came in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"This is ver' tractive
restaurant," she said, impressed and on com-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pany behavior.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"This is hams' paradise."
He nodded to several people. "Hello,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jimmy Bill. . . . Hello there, Jack.
. . . That's Jack Dempsey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">... I don't eat here much. I usually
eat up at the Harvard Club."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, did you go to Harvard? I
used to know "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Yes." He hesitated ;
there were two versions about Harvard, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he decided suddenly on the true one.
"Yes, and they had me down<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">for a hick there, but not any more.
About a week ago I was out on<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Long Island at the Gouverneer
Haights very fashionable people<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and a couple of Gold Coast boys that
never knew I was alive up in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cambridge began pulling this 'Hello,
Bill, old boy' on me."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He hesitated and suddenly decided to
leave the story there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What do you want a job ?"
he demanded. He remembered sud-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">denly that she had holes in her
stockings. Holes in stockings always<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">moved him, softened him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Yes, or else I've got to go
home," she said. "I want to be a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">dancer you know, Russian Ballet. But
the lessons cost so much,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">so I've got to get a job. I thought
it'd give me stage presence any-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">how."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Hoofer, eh?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, no, serious."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Well, Pavlova's a hoofer,
isn't she?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, no." She was shocked
at this profanity, but after a moment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she continued: "I took with
Miss Campbell Georgia Berriman<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Campbell back home maybe you know
her. She took from Ned<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wayburn, and she's really wonderful.
She "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Yeah?" he said
abstractedly. "Well, it's a tough business cast-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ing agencies bursting with people
that can all do anything, till I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">give them a try. How old are
you?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Eighteen."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm twenty-six. Came here four
years ago without a cent."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"My!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I could quit now and be
comfortable the rest of my life."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"My!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Going to take a year off next
year get married. . . . Ever<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">hear of Irene Rikker?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I should say ! She's about my
favorite of all."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"We're engaged."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"My!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When they went out into Times Square
after a while he said care-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">lessly, "What are you doing
now?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Why, I'm trying to get a job.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I mean right this
minute."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Why, nothing."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Do you want to come up to my
apartment on Forty-sixth Street<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and have some coffee?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Their eyes met, and Emmy Pinkard
made up her mind she could<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">take care of herself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was a great bright studio
apartment with a ten-foot divan, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">after she had coffee and he a
highball, his arm dropped round her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">shoulder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Why should I kiss you?"
she demanded. "I hardly know you,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and besides, you're engaged to
somebody else."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, that ! She doesn't
care."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"No, really ! "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You're a good girl."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Well, I'm certainly not an
idiot."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"All right, go on being a good
girl."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She stood up, but lingered a minute,
very fresh and cool, and not<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">upset at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I suppose this means you won't
give me a job?" she asked pleas-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">antly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He was already thinking about
something else about an inter-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">view and a rehearsal but now he
looked at her again and saw that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she still had holes in her
stockings. He telephoned:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Joe, this is the Fresh Boy. .
. . You didn't think I knew you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">called me that, did you ? . . . It's
all right. . . . Say, have you got<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">those three girls for the party
scene ? Well, listen ; save one for a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Southern kid I'm sending around
today."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He looked at her jauntily, conscious
of being such a good<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">fellow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Wrongs 291<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Well, I don't know how to
thank you. And Mr. Rogers," she<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">added audaciously. "Good-by,
Mr. McChesney."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He disdained to answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">II<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">During rehearsal he used to come
around a great deal and stand<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">watching with a wise expression, as
if he knew everything in people's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">minds ; but actually he was in a
haze about his own good fortune<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and didn't see much and didn't for
the moment care. He spent most<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of his week-ends on Long Island with
the fashionable people who<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">had "taken him up." When
Brancusi referred to him as the "big<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">social butterfly," he would
answer, "Well, what about it? Didn't I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">go to Harvard? You think they found
me in a Grand Street apple<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cart, like you?" He was well
liked among his new friends for his<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">good looks and good nature, as well
as his success.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His engagement to Irene Rikker was
the most unsatisfactory<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thing in his life ; they were tired
of each other but unwilling to put<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">an end to it. Just as, often, the
two richest young people in a town<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are drawn together by the fact, so
Bill McChesney and Irene Rikker,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">borne side by side on waves of
triumph, could not spare each other's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">nice appreciation of what was due
such success. Nevertheless, they<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">indulged in fiercer and more
frequent quarrels, and the end was<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">approaching. It was embodied in one
Frank Llewellen, a big, fine-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">looking actor playing opposite
Irene. Seeing the situation at once,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill became bitterly humorous about
it; from the second week of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">rehearsals there was tension in the
air.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Meanwhile Emmy Pinkard, with enough
money for crackers and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">milk, and a friend who took her out
to dinner, was being happy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Her friend, Easton Hughes from Delaney,
was studying at Colum-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">bia to be a dentist. He sometimes
brought along other lonesome<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">young men studying to be dentists,
and at the price, if it can be<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">called that, of a few casual kisses
in taxicabs, Emmy dined when<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">hungry. One afternoon she introduced
Easton to Bill McChesney<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">at the stage door, and afterward
Bill made his facetious jealousy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the basis of their relationship,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I see that dental number has
been slipping it over on me again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well, don't let him give you any
laughing gas is my advice."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Though their encounters were few,
they always looked at each<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">other. When Bill looked at her he
stared for an instant as if he<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">had not seen her before, and then
remembered suddenly that she<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">was to be teased. When she looked at
him she saw many things a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">bright day outside, with great
crowds of people hurrying through<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the streets ; a very good new
limousine that waited at the curb for<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">two people with very good new
clothes, who got in and went some-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">where that was just like New York,
only away, and more fun there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many times she had wished she had
kissed him, but just as many<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">times she was glad she hadn't ;
since, as the weeks passed he grew<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">less romantic, tied up, like the
rest of them, to the play's laborious<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">evolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They were opening in Atlantic City. A
sudden moodiness, appar-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ent to everyone, came over Bill. He
was short with the director and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">sarcastic with the actors. This, it
was rumored, was because Irene<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rikker had come down with Frank
Llewellen on a different train.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sitting beside the author on the
night of the dress rehearsal, he was<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">an almost sinister figure in the
twilight of the auditorium ; but he<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">said nothing until the end of the
second act, when, with Llewellen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and Irene Rikker on the stage alone,
he suddenly called :<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"We'll go over that again and
cut out the mush ! "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Llewellen came down to the
footlights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What do you mean cut out the
mush?" he inquired. "Those<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are the lines, aren't they?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You know what I mean stick to
business."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I don't know what you
mean."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill stood up. "I mean all that
damn whispering."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"There wasn't any whispering. I
simply asked "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"That'll do take it over."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Llewellen turned away furiously and
was about to proceed, when<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill added audibly: "Even a ham
has got to do his stuff."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Llewellen whipped about. "I
don't have to stand that kind of talk,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mr. McChesney."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Why not? You're a ham, aren't
you? When did you get ashamed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of being a ham? I'm putting on this
play and I want you to stick<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to your stuff." Bill got up and
walked down the aisle. "And when<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you don't do it, I'm going to call
you just like anybody else."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Well, you watch out for your
tone of voice "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What'll you do about it?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Llewellen jumped down into the
orchestra pit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm not taking anything from
you 1 " he shouted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Irene Rikker called to them from the
stage, "For heaven's sake,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are you two crazy?" And then
Llewellen swung at him, one short,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">mighty blow. Bill pitched back
across a row of seats, fell through<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">one, splintering it, and lay wedged
there. There was a moment's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wild confusion, then people holding
Llewellen, then the author, with<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a white face, pulling Bill up, and
the stage manager crying: "Shall<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I kill him, chief? Shall I break his
fat face?" and Llewellen panting<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and Irene Rikker frightened.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Get back there!" Bill
cried, holding a handkerchief to his face<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and teetering in the author's
supporting arms. "Everybody get back !<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Take that scene again, and no talk !
Get back, Llewellen ! "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Before they realized it they were
all back on the stage, Irene<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pulling Llewellen's arm and talking
to him fast. Someone put on<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the auditorium lights full and then
dimmed them again hurriedly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When Emmy came out presently for her
scene, she saw in a quick<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">glance that Bill was sitting with a
whole mask of handkerchiefs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">over his bleeding face. She hated
Llewellen and was afraid that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">presently they would break up and go
back to New York. But Bill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">had saved the show from his own
folly, since for Llewellen to take<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the further initiative of quitting
would hurt his professional stand-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ing. The act ended and the next one
began without an interval.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When it was over, Bill was gone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Next night, during the performance,
he sat on a chair in the wings<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in view of everyone coming on or
off. His face was swollen and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">bruised, but he neglected to seem
conscious of the fact and there<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">were no comments. Once he went
around in front, and when he re-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">turned, word leaked out that two of
the New York agencies were<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">making big buys. He had a hit they
all had a hit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the sight of him to whom Emmy
felt they all owed so much,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a great wave of gratitude swept over
her. She went up and thanked<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm a good picker,
red-head," he agreed grimly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Thank you for picking
me."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And suddenly Emmy was moved to a
rash remark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You've hurt your face so badly
! " she exclaimed. "Oh, I think<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">it was so brave of you not to let
everything go to pieces last night."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He looked at her hard for a moment
and then an ironic smile<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tried unsuccessfully to settle on
his swollen face.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Do you admire me, baby?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Yes."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Even when I fell in the seats,
did you admire me?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You got control of everything
so quick."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"That's loyalty for you. You
found something to admire in that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">fool mess."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And her happiness bubbled up into,
"Anyhow, you behaved just<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wonderfully." She looked so fresh
and young that Bill, who had had<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a wretched day, wanted to rest his
swollen cheek against her cheek.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He took both the bruise and the
desire with him to New York<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">next morning ; the bruise faded, but
the desire remained. And when<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">they opened in the city, no sooner
did he see other men begin to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">crowd around her beauty than she
became this play for him, this<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">success, the thing that he came to
see when he came to the theatre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After a good run it closed just as
he was drinking too much and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">needed someone on the gray days of
reaction. They were married<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">suddenly in Connecticut, early in
June.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two men sat in the Savoy Grill in
London, waiting for the Fourth<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of July. It was already late in May.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Is he a nice guy?" asked
Hubbel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Very nice," answered
Brancusi ; "very nice, very handsome, very<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">popular." After a moment, he
added: "I want to get him to come<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">home."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"That's what I don't get about
him," said Hubbel. "Show business<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">over here is nothing compared to
home. What does he want to stay<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">here for?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"He goes around with a lot of
dukes and ladies."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Last week when I met him he
was with three ladies Lady this,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lady that, Lady the other
thing."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I thought he was
married."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Married three years,"
said Brancusi, "got a fine child, going<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to have another."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He broke off as McChesney came in,
his very American face star-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ing about boldly over the collar of
a box-shouldered topcoat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Hello, Mac ; meet my friend
Mr. Hubbel."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"J'doo," said Bill. He sat
down, continuing to stare around the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">bar to see who was present. After a
few minutes Hubbel left, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill asked :<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Who's that bird?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"He's only been here a month.
He ain't got a title yet. You been<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">here six months, remember."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill grinned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You think I'm high-hat, don't
you? Well, I'm not kidding myself<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">anyhow. I like it ; it gets me. I'd
like to be the Marquis of McChes-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ney."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Maybe you can drink yourself
into it," suggested Brancusi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Shut your trap. Who said I was
drinking? Is that what they<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">say now ? Look here ; if you can
tell me any American manager in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the history of the theatre who's had
the success that I've had in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">London in less than eight months,
I'll go back to America with you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tomorrow. If you'll just tell me
"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"It was with your old shows.
You had two flops in New York."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill stood up, his face hardening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Who do you think you
are?" he demanded. "Did you come over<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">here to talk to me like that?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Don't get sore now, Bill. I
just want you to come back. I'd say<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">anything for that. Put over three
seasons like you had in '22 and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">'23, and you're fixed for
life."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"New York makes me sick,"
said Bill moodily. cc One minute<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you're a king; then you have two
flops, they go around saying<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you're on the toboggan."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Brancusi shook his head.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"That wasn't why they said it.
It was because you had that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">quarrel with Aronstael, your best
friend."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Friend hell!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Your best friend in business
anyhow. Then "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I don't want to talk about
it." He looked at his watch. "Look<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">here; Emmy's feeling bad so I'm
afraid I can't have dinner with<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you tonight. Come around to the
office before you sail."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Five minutes later, standing by the
cigar counter, Brancusi saw<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill enter the Savoy again and
descend the steps that led to the tea<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">room.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Grown to be a great
diplomat," thought Brancusi ; "he used to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">just say when he had a date. Going
with these dukes and ladies is<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">polishing him up even more."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Perhaps he was a little hurt, though
it was not typical of him to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">be hurt. At any rate he made a
decision, then and there, that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">McChesney was on the down grade; it
was quite typical of him<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that at that point he erased him
from his mind forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There was no outward indication that
Bill was on the down<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">grade ; a hit at the New Strand, a
hit at the Prince of Wales, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the weekly grosses pouring in almost
as well as they had two or<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">three years before in New York.
Certainly a man of action was<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">justified in changing his base. And
the man who, an hour later,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">turned into his Hyde Park house for
dinner had all the vitality of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the late twenties. Emmy, very tired and
clumsy, lay on a couch<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in the upstairs sitting room. He
held her for a moment in his<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">arms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Almost over now," he
said. "You're beautiful."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Don't be ridiculous."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"It's true. You're always
beautiful. I don't know why. Perhaps<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">because you've got character, and
that's always in your face, even<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">when you're like this."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She was pleased ; she ran her hand
through his hair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Character is the greatest
thing in the world," he declared, "and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you've got more than anybody I
know."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Did you see Brancusi?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I did, the little louse I I
decided not to bring him home to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">dinner,"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What was the matter?''<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, just snooty talking about
my row with Aronstael, as if it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">was my fault. "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She hesitated, closed her mouth
tight and then said quietly, "You<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">got into that fight with Aronstael
because you were drinking. "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He rose impatiently.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Are you going to start "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"No, Bill, but you're drinking
too much now. You know you are."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Aware that she was right, he evaded
the matter and they went<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in to dinner. On the glow of a
bottle of claret he decided he would<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">go on the wagon tomorrow till after
the baby was born.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I always stop when I want,
don't I? I always do what I say.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You never saw me quit yet."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Never yet."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They had coffee together, and
afterward he got up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Come back early," said
Emmy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, sure. . . . What's the
matter, baby?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm just crying. Don't mind
me. Oh, go on ;^ don't just stand<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">there like a big idiot."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"But I'm worried, naturally. I
don't like to see you cry."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, I don't know where you go
in the evenings; I don't know<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">who you're with. And that Lady Sybil
Combrinck who kept phon-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ing. It's all right, I suppose, but
I wake up in the night and I feel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">so alone, Bill. Because we've always
been together, haven't we, until<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">recently?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"But we're together still . . .
What's happened to you, Emmy?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I know I'm just crazy. We'd
never let each other down, would<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">we? We never have "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Of course not."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Come back early, or when you
can."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He looked in for a minute at the
Prince of Wales Theatre ; then<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he went into the hotel next door and
called a number.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'd like to speak to her
Ladyship. Mr. McChesney calling."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was some time before Lady Sybil
answered :<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"This is rather a surprise.
It's been several weeks since I've been<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">lucky enough to hear from you."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Her voice was flip as a whip and
cold as automatic refrigeration,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in the mode grown familiar since
British ladies took to piecing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">themselves together out of
literature. It had fascinated Bill for a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">while, but just for a while. He had
kept his head.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I haven't had a minute,"
he explained easily. "You're not sore,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are you?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I should scarcely say
'sore'."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I was afraid you might be ;
you didn't send me an invitation to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you party tonight. My idea was that
after we talked it all over we<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">agreed "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You talked a great deal/' she
said; "possibly a little too much."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Suddenly, to Bill's astonishment,
she hung up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">" Going British on me," he
thought. "A little skit entitled The<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Daughter of a Thousand Earls."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The snub roused him, the indifference
revived his waning interest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Usually women forgave his changes of
heart because of his obvious<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">devotion to Emmy, and he was
remembered by various ladies with<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a not unpleasant sigh. But he had
detected no such sigh upon the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">phone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'd like to clear up this
mess," he thought. Had he been wearing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">evening clothes, he might have
dropped in at the dance and talked it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">over with her, still he didn't want
to go home. Upon considera-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tion it seemed important that the
misunderstanding should be fixed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">up at once, and presently he began
to entertain the idea of going as<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he was ; Americans were excused
unconventionalities of dress. In any<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">case, it was not nearly time, and,
in the company of several high-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">balls, he considered the matter for
an hour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At midnight he walked up the steps
of her Mayfair house. The<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">coat-room attendants scrutinized his
tweeds disapprovingly and a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">footman peered in vain for his name
on the list of guests. Fortu-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">nately his friend Sir Humphrey Dunn
arrived at the same time and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">convinced the footman it must be a
mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Inside, Bill immediately looked
about for his hostess.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She was a very tall young woman,
half American and all the more<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">intensely English. In a sense, she
had discovered Bill McChesney,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">vouched for his savage charms ; his
retirement was one of her most<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">humiliating experiences since she
had begun being bad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She stood with her husband at the
head of the receiving line Bill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">had never seen them together before.
He decided to choose a less<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">formal moment for presenting
himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As the receiving went on
interminably, he became increasingly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">uncomfortable. He saw a few people
he knew, but not many, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he was conscious that his clothes
were attracting a certain atten-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tion ; he was aware also that Lady
Sybil saw him and could have<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">relieved his embarrassment with a
wave of her hand, but she made<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">no sign. He was sorry he had come,
but to withdraw now would be<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">absurd, and going to a buffet table,
he took a glass of champagne.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When he turned around she was alone
at last, and he was about<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to approach her when the butler
spoke to him :<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Pardon me, sir. Have you a
card?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm a friend of Lady
Sybil's," said Bill impatiently. He turned<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">away, but the butler followed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm sorry, sir, but I'll have
to ask you to step aside with me and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">straighten this up."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"There's no need. I'm just
about to speak to Lady Sybil now."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"My orders are different,
sir," said the butler firmly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then, before Bill realized what was
happening, his arms were<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pressed quietly to his sides and he
was propelled into a little ante-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">room back of the buffet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There he faced a man in a pince-nez
in whom he recognized the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Combrincks' private secretary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The secretary nodded to the butler,
saying, "This is the man";<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">whereupon Bill was released.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Mr. McChesney," said the
secretary, "you have seen fit to force<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">your way here without a card, and
His Lordship requests that you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">leave his house at once. Will you
kindly give me the check for your<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">coat?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then Bill understood, and the single
word that he found appli-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cable to Lady Sybil sprang to his
lips ; whereupon the secretary gave<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a sign to two footmen, and in a
furious struggle Bill was carried<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">through a pantry where busy bus boys
stared at the scene, down<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a long hall, and pushed out a door
into the night. The door closed ;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a moment later it was opened again
to let his coat billow forth and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">his cane clatter down the steps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As he stood there, overwhelmed,
stricken aghast, a taxicab stopped<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">beside him and the driver called:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Feeling ill, gov'nor?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I know where you can get a
good pick-me-up, gov'nor. Never<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">too late." The door of the taxi
opened on a nightmare. There<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">was a cabaret that broke the closing
hours; there was being with<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">strangers he had picked up somewhere
; then there were arguments,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and trying to cash a check, and
suddenly proclaiming over and over<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that he was William McChesney, the
producer, and convincing no<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">one of the fact, not even himself.
It seemed important to see Lady<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sybil right away and call her to
account ; but presently nothing was<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">important at all. He was in a
taxicab whose driver had just shaken<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">him awake in front of his own home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The telephone was ringing as he went
in, but he walked stonily<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">past the maid and only heard her
voice when his foot was on the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Mr. McChesney, it's the
hospital calling again. Mrs. McChes-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ney's there and they've been phoning
every hour."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Still in a daze, he held the
receiver up to his ear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"We're calling from the Midland
Hospital, for your wife. She was<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">delivered of a still-born child at nine
this morning."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Wait a minute." His voice
was dry and cracking. "I don't under-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stand."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After a while he understood that
Emmy's child was dead and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she wanted him. His knees sagged
groggily as he walked down the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">street, looking for a taxi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The room was dark ; Emmy looked up
and saw him from a rum-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pled bed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"It's you!" she cried.
"I thought you were dead! Where did<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you go?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He threw himself down on his knees
beside the bed, but she<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">turned away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, you smell awful," she
said. "It makes me sick."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But she kept her hand in his hair,
and he knelt there motionless<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">for a long time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm done with you," she
muttered, "but it was awful when I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thought you were dead. Everybody's
dead. I wish I was dead."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A curtain parted with the wind, and
as he rose to arrange it, she<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">saw him in the full morning light,
pale and terrible, with rumpled<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">clothes and bruises on his face.
This time she hated him instead of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">those who had hurt him. She could
feel him slipping out of her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">heart, feel the space he left, and
all at once he was gone, and she<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">could even forgive him and be sorry
for him. All this in a minute.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She had fallen down at the door of
the hospital, trying to get out<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of the taxicab alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IV<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When Emmy was well, physically and
mentally, her incessant idea<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">was to learn to dance ; the old
.dream inculcated by Miss Georgia<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Berriman Campbell of South Carolina
persisted as a bright avenue<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">leading back to first youth and days
of hope in New York. To her,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">dancing meant that elaborate blend
of tortuous attitudes and formal<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pirouettes that evolved out of Italy
several hundred years ago and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">reached its apogee in Russia at the
beginning of this century. She<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wanted to use herself on something
she could believe in, and it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">seemed to her that the dance was
woman's interpretation of music ;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">instead of strong fingers, one had
limbs with which to render.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tschaikowsky and Stravinski; and
feet could be as eloquent in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chopiniana as voices in "The
Ring." At the bottom, it was some-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thing sandwiched in between the
acrobats and the trained seals ; at<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the top it was Pavlova and art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Once they were settled in an
apartment back in New York, she<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">plunged into her work like a girl of
sixteen four hours a day at<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">bar exercises, attitudes, sauts,
arabesques and pirouettes. It became<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the realest part of her life, and
her only worry was whether or not<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she was too old. At twenty-six she
had ten years to make up, but<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she was a natural dancer with a fine
body and that lovely face.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill encouraged it ; when she was
ready he was going to build the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">first real American ballet around
her. There were even times when<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he envied her her absorption ; for
affairs in his own line were more<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">difficult since they had come home.
For one thing, he had made<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">enemies in those early days of
self-confidence; there were exag-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">gerated stones of his drinking and
of his being hard on actors and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">difficult to work with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was against him that he had
always been unable to save money<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and must beg a backing for each
play. Then, too, in a curious way,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he was intelligent, as he was brave
enough to prove in several un-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">commercial ventures, but he had no
Theatre Guild behind him, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">what money he lost was charged
against him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There were successes, too, but he
worked harder for them, or it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">seemed so, for he had begun to pay a
price for his irregular life. He<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">always intended to take a rest or
give up his incessant cigarettes, but<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">there was so much competition now
new men coming up, with new<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">reputations for infallibility and
besides, he wasn't used to regu-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">larity. He liked to do his work in
those great spurts, inspired by<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">black coffee, that seem so
inevitable in show business, but which<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">took so much out of a man after
thirty. He had come to lean, in a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">way, on Emmy's fine health and
vitality. They were always together,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and if he felt a vague
dissatisfaction that he had grown to need her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">more than she needed him, there was
always the hope that things<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">would break better for him next
month, next season.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Coming home from ballet school one
November evening, Emmy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">swung her little gray bag, pulled
her hat far down over her still<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">damp hair, and gave herself up to
pleasant speculation. For a month<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she had been aware of people who had
come to the studio especially<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to watch her she was ready to dance.
Once she had worked just<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">as hard and for as long a time on
something else her relations with<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill only to reach a climax and
misery and despair, but here there<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">was nothing to fail her except
herself. Yet even now she felt a little<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">rash in thinking : "Now it's
come. I'm going to be happy."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She hurried, for something had come
up today that she must talk<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">over with Bill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Finding him in the living room, she
called him to come back while<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she dressed. She began to talk
without looking around :<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Listen what happened!"
Her voice was loud, to compete with<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the water running in the tub.
"Paul Makova wants me to dance<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">with him at the Metropolitan this
season ; only it's not sure, so it's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a secret even I'm not supposed to
know."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"That's great."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"The only thing is whether it
wouldn't be better for me to make<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a debut abroad? Anyhow Donilof says
I'm ready to appear. What<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">do you think?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I don't know."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You don't sound very
enthusiastic."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I've got something on my mind.
I'll tell you about it later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Go on."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"That's all, dear. If you still
feel like going to Germany for a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">month, like you said, Donilof would
arrange a debut for me in Ber-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">lin, but I'd rather open here and
dance with Paul Makova. Just<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">imagine " She broke off,
feeling suddenly through the thick skin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of her elation how abstracted he
was. "Tell me what you've got on<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">your mind."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I went to Doctor Kearns this
afternoon."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What did he say?" Her
mind was still singing with her own hap-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">piness. Bill's intermittent attacks
of hypochondria had long ceased<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to worry her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I told him about that blood this
morning, and he said what he<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">said last year it was probably a
little broken vein in my throat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But since I'd been coughing and was
worried, perhaps it was safer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to take an X-ray and clear the
matter up. Well, we cleared it up all<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">right. My left lung is practically
gone."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Bill!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Luckily there are no spots on
the other."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She waited, horribly afraid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"It's come at a bad time for
me," he went on steadily, "but it's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">got to be faced. He thinks I ought
to go to the Adirondacks or to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Denver for the winter, and his idea
is Denver. That way it'll prob-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ably clear up in five or six
months."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Of course we'll have to "
she stopped suddenly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I wouldn't expect you to go
especially if you have this oppor-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tunity."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Of course I'll go," she
said quickly. "Your health comes first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We've always gone everywhere
together."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, no."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Why, of course." She made
her voice strong and decisive. "We've<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">always been together. I couldn't
stay here without you. When do<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you have to go?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"As soon as possible. I went in
to see Brancusi to find out if he<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wanted to take over the Richmond
piece, but he didn't seem enthusi-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">astic." His face hardened.
"Of course there won't be anything else<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">for the present, but I'll have
enough, with what's owing "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, if I was only making some
money ! " Emmy cried. "You work<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">so hard and here I've been spending
two hundred dollars a week for<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">just my dancing lessons alone more
than 111 be able to earn for<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">years."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Of course in six months I'll
be as well as ever he says."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Sure, dearest; we'll get you
well. We'll start as soon as we<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">can."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She put an arm around him and kissed
his cheek.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'm just an old
parasite," she said. "I should have known my<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">darling wasn't well,"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He reached automatically for a
cigarette, and then stopped.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I forgot I've got to start
cutting down smoking." He rose to the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">occasion suddenly: "No, baby,
I've decided to go alone. You'd go<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">crazy with boredom out there, and
I'd just be thinking I was keeping<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you away from your dancing."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Don't think about that. The
thing is to get you well."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They discussed the matter hour after
hour for the next week, each<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of them saying everything except the
truth that he wanted her to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">go with him and that she wanted
passionately to stay in New York.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She talked it over guardedly with
Donilof, her ballet master, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">found that he thought any
postponement would be a terrible mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seeing other girls in the ballet
school making plans for the winter,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she wanted to die rather than go,
and Bill saw all the involuntary<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">indications of her misery. For a
while they talked of compromising<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">on the Adirondacks, whither she
would commute by aeroplane for<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the week-ends, but he was running a
little fever now and he was<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">definitely ordered West.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bill settled it all one gloomy
Sunday night, with that rough,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">generous justice that had first made
her admire him, that made him<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">rather tragic in his adversity, as
he had always been bearable in his<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">overweening success :<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"It's just up to me, baby. I
got into this mess because I didn't have<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">any self-control you seem to have
all of that in this family and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">now it's only me that can get me
out. You've worked hard at your<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stuff for three years and you
deserve your chance and if you came<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">out there now you'd have it on me
the rest of my life." He grinned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"And I couldn't stand that.
Besides, it wouldn't be good for the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">kid."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Eventually she gave in, ashamed of
herself, miserable and glad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the world of her work, where she
existed without Bill, was big-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ger to her now than the world in
which they existed together. There<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">was more room to be glad in one than
to be sorry in the other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two days later, with his ticket
bought for that afternoon at five,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">they passed the last hours together,
talking of everything hopeful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She protested still, and sincerely;
had he weakened for a moment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she would have gone. But the shock
had done something to him,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and he showed more character under
it than he had for years. Per-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">haps it would be good for him to
work it out alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"In the spring!" they
said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then in the station with little
Billy, and Bill saying: "I hate these<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">grave-side partings. You leave me
here. I've got to make a phone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">call from the train before it
goes."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They had never spent more than a
night apart in six years, save<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">when Emmy was in the hospital ; save
for the time in England they<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">had a good record of faithfulness
and of tenderness toward each<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">other, even though she had been
alarmed and often unhappy at this<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">insecure bravado from the first.
After he went through the gate alone,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Emmy was glad he had a phone call to
make and tried to picture<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">him making it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She was a good woman; she had loved
him with all her heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When she went out into Thirty-third
Street, it was just as dead as<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">dead for a while, and the apartment
he paid for would be empty of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">him, and she was here, about to do
something that would make her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">happy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She stopped after a few blocks,
thinking : "Why, this is terrible<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">what I'm doing! I'm letting him down
like the worst person I ever<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">heard of. I'm leaving him flat and
going off to dinner with Donilof<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and Paul Makova, whom I like for
being beautiful and for having<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the same color eyes and hair. Bill's
on the train alone."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She swung little Billy around
suddenly as if to go back to the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">station. She could see him sitting
in the train, with his face so pale<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and tired, and no Emmy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I can't let him down,"
she cried to herself as wave after wave of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">sentiment washed over her. But only
sentiment hadn't he let her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">down hadn't he done what he wanted
in London?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Oh, poor Bill!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She stood irresolute, realizing for
one last honest moment how<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">quickly she would forget this and
find excuses for what she was<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">doing. She had to think hard of
London, and her conscience cleared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But with Bill all alone in the train
it seemed terrible to think that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">way. Even now she could turn and go
back to the station and tell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">him that she was coming, but still
she waited, with life very strong<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in her, fighting for her. The
sidewalk was narrow where she stood ;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">presently a great wave of people,
pouring out of the theatre, came<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">flooding along it, and she and
little Billy were swept along with the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">crowd.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the train, Bill telephoned up to
the last minute, postponed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">going back to his stateroom, because
he knew it was almost certain<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that he would not find her there. After
the train started he went back<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and, of course, there was nothing
but his bags in the rack and some<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">magazines on the seat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He knew then that he had lost her.
He saw the set-up without<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">any illusions this Paul Makova, and
months of proximity, and lone-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">liness afterward nothing would ever
be the same. When he had<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thought about it all a long time,
reading Variety and Zit's in be-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tween, it began to seem, each time
he came back to it, as if Emmy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">somehow were dead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"She was a fine girl one of the
best. She had character." He<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">realized perfectly that he had
brought all this on himself and that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">there was some law of compensation
involved. He saw, too, that by<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">going away he had again become as
good as she was; it was all<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">evened up at last.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He felt beyond everything, even
beyond his grief, an almost com-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">fortable sensation of being in the
hands of something bigger than<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">himself; and grown a little tired
and unconfident two qualities he<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">could never for a moment tolerate it
did not seem so terrible if he<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">were going West for a definite
finish. He was sure that Emmy would<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">come at the end, no matter what she
was doing or how good an en-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">gagement she had<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com