Page:My Dear Cornelia (1924).pdf/226

 chief, thrust it into my hands, and whispered with singular intensity: "Take it with you, please! Take it away and pitch it—pitch it where no one will ever find it!" I dropped it discreetly into my overcoat pocket. Then Oliver entered from the elevator, questioned Dorothy for a minute, and sent the two girls up to Cornelia.

Oliver, Willys, and I then entered the waiting taxi and drove away. Oliver sat with his back to the driver, facing us two. I itched to ask him why the other girl had told me that their car had skidded, and why Dorothy had denied it. But it seemed a good time to let Oliver speak first. He sat for a few moments in a frowning concentration, almost as if we had not been there. Then he ejaculated, still as if we had not been there, "My God, what a mess! My God, what a mess!" Willys rallied him on making such an ado over a fine. Then Oliver hurled the whole thing between our eyes, just as he himself had got it, standing there so gaily in the library, smiling histrionically back at us from the telephone. The Infant—he still referred to him as "the Infant"— had been arrested on the charge of manslaughter and driving a car while drunk. He wasn't drunk, but he had been drinking a little at the party, as