Page:Strange Interlude (1928).djvu/37

Rh keeping your mind occupied with the routine of managing the household—

[He forces a prim playful smile]

and managing me, I might add!—you have wonderfully improved and I think it most ill-advised in the hottest part of August, while you’re really still a convalescent—

[Thinking]

Talking! his voice like a fatiguing dying tune droned on a beggar’s organ his words arising from the tomb of a soul in puffs of ashes

[Torturedly]

Ashes! oh, Gordon, my dear one! oh, lips on my lips, oh, strong arms around me, oh, spirit so brave and generous and gay! ashes dissolving into mud! mud and ashes! that’s all! gone! gone forever from me!

[Thinking angrily]

Her eyes I know that look  tender, loving  not for me  damn Gordon! I’m glad he’s dead!

[A touch of asperity in his voice]

And at a couple of hours’ notice to leave everything in the air, as it were—

[Then judicially]

No, Nina, frankly, I can’t see it. You know I’d gladly consent to anything in the world to benefit you, but—surely, you can’t have reflected!