Page 399 - tender-is-the-night

‘Not as things go now. I got tired of the brokerage busi-
ness and went away. But I have good stocks in the hands of
friends who are holding it for me. All goes well.’
‘Dick’s getting rich,’ Nicole said. In reaction her voice
had begun to tremble.
On the after deck Golding had fanned three pairs of
dancers into action with his colossal paws. Nicole and Tom-
my joined them and Tommy remarked: ‘Dick seems to be
drinking.’
‘Only moderately,’ she said loyally.
‘There are those who can drink and those who can’t. Ob-
viously Dick can’t. You ought to tell him not to.’
‘I!’ she exclaimed in amazement. ‘I tell Dick what he
should do or shouldn’t do!’
But in a reticent way Dick was still vague and sleepy
when they reached the pier at Cannes. Golding buoyed him
down into the launch of the Margin whereupon Lady Caro-
line shifted her place conspicuously. On the dock he bowed
good-by with exaggerated formality, and for a moment he
seemed about to speed her with a salty epigram, but the
bone of Tommy’s arm went into the soft part of his and they
walked to the attendant car.
‘I’ll drive you home,’ Tommy suggested.
‘Don’t bother—we can get a cab.’
‘I’d like to, if you can put me up.’
On the back seat of the car Dick remained quiescent until
the yellow monolith of Golfe Juan was passed, and then the
constant carnival at Juan les Pins where the night was mu-
sical and strident in many languages. When the car turned

399