Page 286 - tender-is-the-night

XVI

‘I want to go away,’ he told Franz. ‘For a month or so, for
as long as I can.’
‘Why not, Dick? That was our original arrangement—it
was you who insisted on staying. If you and Nicole—‘
‘I don’t want to go away with Nicole. I want to go away
alone. This last thing knocked me sideways—if I get two
hours’ sleep in twenty-four, it’s one of Zwingli’s miracles.’
‘You wish a real leave of abstinence.’
‘The word is ‘absence.’ Look here: if I go to Berlin to the
Psychiatric Congress could you manage to keep the peace?
For three months she’s been all right and she likes her nurse.
My God, you’re the only human being in this world I can
ask this of.’
Franz grunted, considering whether or not he could be
trusted to think always of his partner’s interest.
In Zurich the next week Dick drove to the airport and
took the big plane for Munich. Soaring and roaring into the
blue he felt numb, realizing how tired he was. A vast persua-
sive quiet stole over him, and he abandoned sickness to the
sick, sound to the motors, direction to the pilot. He had no
intention of attending so much as a single session of the con-
gress—he could imagine it well enough, new pamphlets by
Bleuler and the elder Forel that he could much better digest
at home, the paper by the American who cured demen-

286 Tender is the Night