Page 225 - tender-is-the-night

He nodded. With some concentration he had been able
to follow her.
‘Now of course we have lots of connections there—Father
controls certain chairs and fellowships and so forth at the
University, and I thought if we took Nicole home and threw
her with that crowd—you see she’s quite musical and speaks
all these languages—what could be better in her condition
than if she fell in love with some good doctor—‘
A burst of hilarity surged up in Dick, the Warrens were
going to buy Nicole a doctor—You got a nice doctor you can
let us use? There was no use worrying about Nicole when
they were in the position of being able to buy her a nice
young doctor, the paint scarcely dry on him.
‘But how about the doctor?’ he said automatically.
‘There must be many who’d jump at the chance.’
The dancers were back, but Baby whispered quickly:
‘This is the sort of thing I mean. Now where is Nicole—
she’s gone off somewhere. Is she upstairs in her room? What
am I supposed to do? I never know whether it’s something
innocent or whether I ought to go find her.’
‘Perhaps she just wants to be by herself—people living
alone get used to loneliness.’ Seeing that Miss Warren was
not listening he stopped. ‘I’ll take a look around.’
For a moment all the outdoors shut in with mist was like
spring with the curtains drawn. Life was gathered near the
hotel. Dick passed some cellar windows where bus boys
sat on bunks and played cards over a litre of Spanish wine.
As he approached the promenade, the stars began to come
through the white crests of the high Alps. On the horseshoe

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