Page 135 - tender-is-the-night

Casasus upon it he looked toward Pierce’s desk, holding the
latter for a moment in a friendly eye-play conditioned by an
old joke of three years before when Pierce had been involved
with a Lithuanian countess. Pierce played up with a grin
until Casasus had authorized the check and had no further
recourse to detain Dick, whom he liked, than to stand up
holding his pince-nez and repeat, ‘Yes, he’s in California.’
Meanwhile Dick had seen that Perrin, at the head of the
line of desks, was in conversation with the heavyweight
champion of the world; from a sidesweep of Perrin’s eye
Dick saw that he was considering calling him over and in-
troducing him, but that he finally decided against it.
Cutting across the social mood of Casasus with the in-
tensity he had accumulated at the glass desk—which is to
say he looked hard at the check, studying it, and then fixed
his eyes on grave problems beyond the first marble pillar to
the right of the banker’s head and made a business of shift-
ing the cane, hat, and letters he carried—he said good-by
and went out. He had long ago purchased the doorman; his
taxi sprang to the curb.
‘I want to go to the Films Par Excellence Studio—it’s on
a little street in Passy. Go to the Muette. I’ll direct you from
there.’
He was rendered so uncertain by the events of the last
forty-eight hours that he was not even sure of what he want-
ed to do; he paid off the taxi at the Muette and walked in
the direction of the studio, crossing to the opposite side of
the street before he came to the building. Dignified in his
fine clothes, with their fine accessories, he was yet swayed

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