Page 230 - tender-is-the-night

‘I haven’t got any change, except some shorts.’
As he trudged up to his hotel in a borrowed raincoat he
kept laughing derisively in his throat.
‘BIG chance—oh, yes. My God!—they decided to buy
a doctor? Well, they better stick to whoever they’ve got in
Chicago.’ Revolted by his harshness he made amends to Ni-
cole, remembering that nothing had ever felt so young as
her lips, remembering rain like tears shed for him that lay
upon her softly shining porcelain cheeks ... the silence of the
storm ceasing woke him about three o’clock and he went to
the window. Her beauty climbed the rolling slope, it came
into the room, rustling ghostlike through the curtains... .
... He climbed two thousand meters to Rochers de Naye
the following morning, amused by the fact that his conduc-
tor of the day before was using his day off to climb also.
Then Dick descended all the way to Montreux for a
swim, got back to his hotel in time for dinner. Two notes
awaited him.
‘I’m not ashamed about last night—it was the nicest thing
that ever happened to me and even if I never saw you again,
Mon Capitaine, I would be glad it happened.’
That was disarming enough—the heavy shade of Dohm-
ler retreated as Dick opened the second envelope:
DEAR DOCTOR DIVER: I phoned but you were out. I
wonder if I may ask you a great big favor. Unforeseen cir-
cumstances call me back to Paris, and I find I can make
better time by way of Lausanne. Can you let Nicole ride as
far as Zurich with you, since you are going back Monday?
and drop her at the sanitarium? Is this too much to ask?

230 Tender is the Night