Page 406 - tender-is-the-night

aware of the sin she had committed against him, half afraid
to come in... . She put out her hand as if to rub his head, but
he turned away like a suspicious animal. Nicole could stand
the situation no longer; in a kitchen-maid’s panic she ran
downstairs, afraid of what the stricken man above would
feed on while she must still continue her dry suckling at his
lean chest.
In a week Nicole forgot her flash about Tommy—she had
not much memory for people and forgot them easily. But
in the first hot blast of June she heard he was in Nice. He
wrote a little note to them both—and she opened it under
the parasol, together with other mail they had brought from
the house. After reading it she tossed it over to Dick, and in
exchange he threw a telegram into the lap of her beach pa-
jamas:
Dears will be at Gausses to-morrow unfortunately with-
out mother am counting on seeing you.
‘I’ll be glad to see her,’ said Nicole, grimly.

406 Tender is the Night