Page 384 - tender-is-the-night

He stood in his little kimono arousing the sympathy of
his parents and further arousing Mary’s impatience—then
he said:
‘The water was dirty, it was full of soap-suds.’
‘When you’re not sure what you’re saying—‘ Mary began,
but Nicole interrupted.
‘Stop it, Mary. If there were dirty suds in the water it was
logical to think it was dirty. His father told him to come—‘
‘There couldn’t have been dirty suds in the water.’
Lanier looked reproachfully at his father, who had be-
trayed him. Nicole turned him about by the shoulders and
sent him out of the room; Dick broke the tensity with a
laugh.
Then, as if the sound recalled the past, the old friend-
ship, Mary guessed how far away from them she had gone
and said in a mollifying tone: ‘It’s always like that with chil-
dren.’
Her uneasiness grew as she remembered the past. ‘You’d
be silly to go—Hosain wanted to make this trip anyhow.
After all, you’re my guests and you just blundered into the
thing.’ But Dick, made more angry by this obliqueness and
the use of the word blunder, turned away and began arrang-
ing his effects, saying:
‘It’s too bad about the young women. I’d like to apologize
to the one who came in here.’
‘If you’d only listened on the piano seat!’
‘But you’ve gotten so damned dull, Mary. I listened as
long as I could.’
‘Be quiet!’ Nicole advised him.

384 Tender is the Night