Page 65 - tender-is-the-night

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The trouble began at the time Earl Brady’s car passed the
Divers’ car stopped on the road—Abe’s account melted im-
personally into the thronged night—Violet McKisco was
telling Mrs. Abrams something she had found out about
the Divers—she had gone upstairs in their house and she
had come upon something there which had made a great
impression on her. But Tommy is a watch-dog about the
Divers. As a matter of fact she is inspiring and formidable—
but it’s a mutual thing, and the fact of The Divers together is
more important to their friends than many of them realize.
Of course it’s done at a certain sacrifice—sometimes they
seem just rather charming figures in a ballet, and worth just
the attention you give a ballet, but it’s more than that—you’d
have to know the story. Anyhow Tommy is one of those men
that Dick’s passed along to Nicole and when Mrs. McKisco
kept hinting at her story, he called them on it. He said:
‘Mrs. McKisco, please don’t talk further about Mrs. Div-
er.’
‘I wasn’t talking to you,’ she objected.
‘I think it’s better to leave them out.’
‘Are they so sacred?’
‘Leave them out. Talk about something else.’
He was sitting on one of the two little seats beside Cam-
pion. Campion told me the story.

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