Page 112 - tender-is-the-night

together, so many accidents that at last they were forced to
conclude that they were for each other. They had arrived
with clean hands, or so it seemed, after no traffic with the
merely curious and clandestine.
But for Dick that portion of the road was short; the turn-
ing came before they reached the hotel.
‘There’s nothing to do about it,’ he said, with a feeling of
panic. ‘I’m in love with you but it doesn’t change what I said
last night.’
‘That doesn’t matter now. I just wanted to make you love
me—if you love me everything’s all right.’
‘Unfortunately I do. But Nicole mustn’t know—she
mustn’t suspect even faintly. Nicole and I have got to go on
together. In a way that’s more important than just wanting
to go on.’
‘Kiss me once more.’
He kissed her, but momentarily he had left her.
‘Nicole mustn’t suffer—she loves me and I love her—you
understand that.’
She did understand—it was the sort of thing she under-
stood well, not hurting people. She knew the Divers loved
each other because it had been her primary assumption. She
had thought however that it was a rather cooled relation,
and actually rather like the love of herself and her mother.
When people have so much for outsiders didn’t it indicate a
lack of inner intensity?
‘And I mean love,’ he said, guessing her thoughts. ‘Active
love— it’s more complicated than I can tell you. It was re-
sponsible for that crazy duel.’

112 Tender is the Night