Page:Willa Cather - The Song of the Lark.djvu/300

THE SONG OF THE LARK up a friend of mine. I 'll get you transportation. It would make a new girl of you. Let me write to Henry, and you pack your trunk. That 's all that 's necessary. No red tape about it. What do you say, Thea?" She bit her lip, and sighed as if she were waking up.

Fred crumpled his napkin impatiently. "Well, is n't it easy enough?"

"That 's the trouble; it 's too easy. Does n't sound probable. I 'm not used to getting things for nothing."

Ottenburg laughed. "Oh, if that 's all, I 'll show you how to begin. You won't get this for nothing, quite. I 'll ask you to let me stop off and see you on my way to California. Perhaps by that time you will be glad to see me. Better let me break the news to Bowers. I can manage him. He needs a little transportation himself now and then. You must get corduroy riding-things and leather leggings. There are a few snakes about. Why do you keep frowning?"

"Well, I don't exactly see why you take the trouble. What do you get out of it? You have n't liked me so well the last two or three weeks."

Fred dropped his third cigarette and looked at his watch. "If you don't see that, it 's because you need a tonic. I 'll show you what I 'll get out of it. Now I 'm going to get a cab and take you home. You are too tired to walk a step. You 'd better get to bed as soon as you get there. Of course, I don't like you so well when you 're half anæsthetized all the time. What have you been doing to yourself?"

Thea rose. "I don't know. Being bored eats the heart out of me, I guess." She walked meekly in front of him to the elevator. Fred noticed for the hundredth time how vehemently her body proclaimed her state of feeling. He remembered how remarkably brilliant and beautiful she had been when she sang at Mrs. Nathanmeyer's: flushed and gleaming, round and supple, something that could n't be dimmed or downed. And now she seemed a moving 290