Page 449 - tender-is-the-night

‘Your wife does not love you,’ said Tommy suddenly. ‘She
loves me.’
The two men regarded each other with a curious im-
potence of expression. There can be little communication
between men in that position, for their relation is indirect,
and consists of how much each of them has possessed or will
possess of the woman in question, so that their emotions
pass through her divided self as through a bad telephone
connection.
‘Wait a minute,’ Dick said. ‘Donnez moi du gin et du si-
phon.’
‘Bien, Monsieur.’
‘All right, go on, Tommy.’
‘It’s very plain to me that your marriage to Nicole has
run its course. She is through. I’ve waited five years for that
to be so.’
‘What does Nicole say?’
They both looked at her.
‘I’ve gotten very fond of Tommy, Dick.’
He nodded.
‘You don’t care for me any more,’ she continued. ‘It’s all
just habit. Things were never the same after Rosemary.’
Unattracted to this angle, Tommy broke in sharply
with:
‘You don’t understand Nicole. You treat her always like a
patient because she was once sick.’
They were suddenly interrupted by an insistent Ameri-
can, of sinister aspect, vending copies of The Herald and of
The Times fresh from New York.

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