Page 426 - tender-is-the-night

about.
‘Where’s Dick—is he lunching with us?’
Seeing that his remark had meant comparatively little to
him she suddenly laughed away its effect.
‘Dick’s on a tour,’ she said. ‘Rosemary Hoyt turned up,
and either they’re together or she upset him so much that he
wants to go away and dream about her.’
‘You know, you’re a little complicated after all.’
‘Oh no,’ she assured him hastily. ‘No, I’m not really—I’m
just a— I’m just a whole lot of different simple people.’
Marius brought out melon and an ice pail, and Nicole,
thinking irresistibly about her crook’s eyes did not answer;
he gave one an entire nut to crack, this man, instead of giv-
ing it in fragments to pick at for meat.
‘Why didn’t they leave you in your natural state?’ Tom-
my demanded presently. ‘You are the most dramatic person
I have known.’
She had no answer.
‘All this taming of women!’ he scoffed.
‘In any society there are certain—‘ She felt Dick’s ghost
prompting at her elbow but she subsided at Tommy’s over-
tone:
‘I’ve brutalized many men into shape but I wouldn’t take
a chance on half the number of women. Especially this
‘kind’ bullying—what good does it do anybody?—you or
him or anybody?’
Her heart leaped and then sank faintly with a sense of
what she owed Dick.
‘I suppose I’ve got—‘

426 Tender is the Night