Page 378 - tender-is-the-night

your tongue, Dick, will you?’ But she laughed. ‘They’re very
swell. The warships all fire at them or salute them or some-
thing. Mary rides in the royal bus in London.’
‘All right,’ he agreed. As he heard Nicole at the door
asking for pins, he called, ‘I wonder if I could have some
whiskey; I feel the mountain air!’
‘She’ll see to it,’ presently Nicole called through the bath-
room door. ‘It was one of those women who were at the
station. She has her veil off.’
‘What did Mary tell you about life?’ he asked.
‘She didn’t say so much—she was interested in high
life—she asked me a lot of questions about my genealogy
and all that sort of thing, as if I knew anything about it.
But it seems the bridegroom has two very tan children by
another marriage—one of them ill with some Asiatic thing
they can’t diagnose. I’ve got to warn the children. Sounds
very peculiar to me. Mary will see how we’d feel about it.’
She stood worrying a minute.
‘She’ll understand,’ Dick reassured her. ‘Probably the
child’s in bed.’
At dinner Dick talked to Hosain, who had been at an
English public school. Hosain wanted to know about stocks
and about Hollywood and Dick, whipping up his imagina-
tion with champagne, told him preposterous tales.
‘Billions?’ Hosain demanded.
‘Trillions,’ Dick assured him.
‘I didn’t truly realize—‘
‘Well, perhaps millions,’ Dick conceded. ‘Every hotel
guest is assigned a harem—or what amounts to a harem.’

378 Tender is the Night