Page 212 - tender-is-the-night

The very fact that you could make a complete comeback
at your age proves that the precipitating factors were pret-
ty near everything. Young woman, you’ll be pulling your
weight long after your friends are carried off screaming.’
—But there was a look of pain in her eyes as she took the
rough dose, the harsh reminder.
‘I know I wouldn’t be fit to marry any one for a long time,’
she said humbly.
Dick was too upset to say any more. He looked out into
the grain field trying to recover his hard brassy attitude.
‘You’ll be all right—everybody here believes in you. Why,
Doctor Gregory is so proud of you that he’ll probably—‘
‘I hate Doctor Gregory.’
‘Well, you shouldn’t.’
Nicole’s world had fallen to pieces, but it was only a flim-
sy and scarcely created world; beneath it her emotions and
instincts fought on. Was it an hour ago she had waited by
the entrance, wearing her hope like a corsage at her belt?
... Dress stay crisp for him, button stay put, bloom narcis-
sus— air stay still and sweet.
‘It will be nice to have fun again,’ she fumbled on. For a
moment she entertained a desperate idea of telling him how
rich she was, what big houses she lived in, that really she was
a valuable property—for a moment she made herself into
her grandfather, Sid Warren, the horse-trader. But she sur-
vived the temptation to confuse all values and shut these
matters into their Victorian side-chambers—even though
there was no home left to her, save emptiness and pain.
‘I have to go back to the clinic. It’s not raining now.’

212 Tender is the Night