Page 98 - tender-is-the-night

expect that much. I know I must seem just nothing to you.’
‘Nonsense. But you seem young to me.’ His thoughts
added, ‘— there’d be so much to teach you.’
Rosemary waited, breathing eagerly till Dick said: ‘And
lastly things aren’t arranged so that this could be as you
want.’
Her face drooped with dismay and disappointment and
Dick said automatically, ‘We’ll have to simply—‘ He stopped
himself, followed her to the bed, sat down beside her while
she wept. He was suddenly confused, not about the ethics of
the matter, for the impossibility of it was sheerly indicated
from all angles but simply confused, and for a moment his
usual grace, the tensile strength of his balance, was absent.
‘I knew you wouldn’t,’ she sobbed. ‘It was just a forlorn
hope.’
He stood up.
‘Good night, child. This is a damn shame. Let’s drop it
out of the picture.’ He gave her two lines of hospital patter
to go to sleep on. ‘So many people are going to love you and
it might be nice to meet your first love all intact, emotion-
ally too. That’s an old-fashioned idea, isn’t it?’ She looked
up at him as he took a step toward the door; she looked at
him without the slightest idea as to what was in his head,
she saw him take another step in slow motion, turn and
look at her again, and she wanted for a moment to hold him
and devour him, wanted his mouth, his ears, his coat collar,
wanted to surround him and engulf him; she saw his hand
fall on the doorknob. Then she gave up and sank back on the
bed. When the door closed she got up and went to the mir-

98 Tender is the Night