Page 415 - tender-is-the-night

‘I knew you shouldn’t have tried it,’ Nicole could not help
saying.
‘He’d tired himself the first two times,’ said the Mexi-
can.
‘It was a foolish thing,’ Nicole insisted. Rosemary tact-
fully said nothing.
After a minute Dick got his breath, panting, ‘I couldn’t
have lifted a paper doll that time.’
An explosive little laugh relieved the tension caused by
his failure. They were all attentive to Dick as he disem-
barked at the dock. But Nicole was annoyed—everything
he did annoyed her now.
She sat with Rosemary under an umbrella while Dick
went to the buffet for a drink—he returned presently with
some sherry for them.
‘The first drink I ever had was with you,’ Rosemary said,
and with a spurt of enthusiasm she added, ‘Oh, I’m so glad
to see you and KNOW you’re all right. I was worried—‘ Her
sentence broke as she changed direction ‘that maybe you
wouldn’t be.’
‘Did you hear I’d gone into a process of deterioration?’
‘Oh, no. I simply—just heard you’d changed. And I’m
glad to see with my own eyes it isn’t true.’
‘It is true,’ Dick answered, sitting down with them. ‘The
change came a long way back—but at first it didn’t show.
The manner remains intact for some time after the morale
cracks.’
‘Do you practise on the Riviera?’ Rosemary demanded
hastily.

415