Page 455 - tender-is-the-night

Baby’s lower jaw projected slightly as she said:
‘That’s what he was educated for.’
The sisters sat in silence; Nicole wondering in a tired way
about things; Baby considering whether or not to marry the
latest candidate for her hand and money, an authenticated
Hapsburg. She was not quite THINKING about it. Her af-
fairs had long shared such a sameness, that, as she dried out,
they were more important for their conversational value
than for themselves. Her emotions had their truest exis-
tence in the telling of them.
‘Is he gone?’ Nicole asked after a while. ‘I think his train
leaves at noon.’
Baby looked.
‘No. He’s moved up higher on the terrace and he’s talk-
ing to some women. Anyhow there are so many people now
that he doesn’t HAVE to see us.’
He had seen them though, as they left their pavilion, and
he followed them with his eyes until they disappeared again.
He sat with Mary Minghetti, drinking anisette.
‘You were like you used to be the night you helped us,’
she was saying, ‘except at the end, when you were horrid
about Caroline. Why aren’t you nice like that always? You
can be.’
It seemed fantastic to Dick to be in a position where
Mary North could tell him about things.
‘Your friends still like you, Dick. But you say awful things
to people when you’ve been drinking. I’ve spent most of my
time defending you this summer.’
‘That remark is one of Doctor Eliot’s classics.’

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