“I know,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about it. I simply don’t want to move.”
“You’ll have to, though.”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
He went on to suggest a small apartment in the bachelor house he was living in himself. Now was the time to rent, before men began coming back to town. He knew of a little suite of three rooms and a bath which ought to be within my means. As we passed the house we stopped and looked at it. I liked it and promised to turn the matter over in my mind.
Next day I broached it to Lovey. The effect was what I expected. He grasped me by the arm, looking up at me with eyes the more eloquent from the fact that they were dead.
“Y’ain’t goin’ to leave me, Slim?”
“It wouldn’t be leaving you, Lovey.”
“Y’ain’t goin’ to live in another ’ouse, where I sha’n’t be seein’ ye every day?”
“You could get a room near.”
“’Twouldn’t be the same thing—not noway, it wouldn’t be. Oh, Slim!”