Page:Bad Girl (1929).pdf/40

 and I suppose it means something to you to go calling on them. It means nothing to me."

Dot's teeth wandered from one finger to another in vain search for a scrap of nail to bite. She turned her head away from Eddie and looked at the wall, an uninteresting but safe view.

"It means nothing to me either," she said finally, "unless you go, too."

He did not answer. There was silence on the landing for a second; then a strange, smothered sound reached Eddie's ears.

"Say, are you crying?" he demanded. "You make me sick, crying 'cause you want to go to some dame's house and won't."

"Oh, it isn't that, Eddie."

He could see her face now. Her eyes were unbecomingly red. The lips that were warm and full were misbehaving. She could hardly make him hear, so low did she speak to keep her voice from ending in a silly little sob.

"It's because you're so mean, Eddie. You speak so cross to me. I guess you don't like me, Eddie."

"Aw, for Christ's sake!" he said, drawing the words out slowly so as to get the maximum amount of contempt in each. "If you want to go to that dizzy broad's house that bad, come on."

"Oh, you're a darling," Dot said, brightening up and making a dive for her compact.

Eddie said nothing. He fumbled for another cigarette and was scratching a match on Herbert Yet Sim Norn's frosted glass panel when Maude and Ted joined them.

"Has Air. Collins decided to favor us?" asked Maude. Her eyes sparkled with amusement, and she broke into a little light laugh when Dot answered:

"Yes, he says he'll go over for a while, Maude."

Ted was already in the car. There was a small pucker