Page 77 - tender-is-the-night

XII

They were at Voisins waiting for Nicole, six of them,
Rosemary, the Norths, Dick Diver and two young French
musicians. They were looking over the other patrons of the
restaurant to see if they had repose—Dick said no American
men had any repose, except himself, and they were seeking
an example to confront him with. Things looked black for
them—not a man had come into the restaurant for ten min-
utes without raising his hand to his face.
‘We ought never to have given up waxed mustaches,’
said Abe. ‘Nevertheless Dick isn’t the ONLY man with re-
pose—‘
‘Oh, yes, I am.’
‘—but he may be the only sober man with repose.’
A well-dressed American had come in with two wom-
en who swooped and fluttered unselfconsciously around a
table. Suddenly, he perceived that he was being watched—
whereupon his hand rose spasmodically and arranged a
phantom bulge in his necktie. In another unseated party a
man endlessly patted his shaven cheek with his palm, and
his companion mechanically raised and lowered the stub of
a cold cigar. The luckier ones fingered eyeglasses and facial
hair, the unequipped stroked blank mouths, or even pulled
desperately at the lobes of their ears.
A well-known general came in, and Abe, counting on the

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