“Bella called me up and told me something had happened — I live around the corner.”
I was sitting near the door that led in to the kitchen. Bella was sitting in the middle of the davenport, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, staring vacantly into the brightness of the heater. Gus was sitting in a straight-backed chair in the middle of the room.
Neilan had been walking around looking at the pictures on the walls. He sat down straddling an arm of the davenport.
“So you were so drunk you don’t remember?” Neilan was looking at Gus.
Gus nodded. Bella looked up at him for a moment and nodded a little and then looked back into the fire.
There was a light tap at the door and it opened and a big man came in quietly and closed the door behind him. He wore glasses and his soft black hat was tilted over the back of his head. I think his name was McNulty, or McNutt — something like that. He said: “Ed’s downstairs with a couple of the boys.”
“They can wait downstairs.” Neilan turned his head a little and looked at Bella out of the corners of his eyes. “So Gus was so drunk he don’t remember?”
Gus stood up. He said: “—damn it! Pat — I was so drunk I didn’t know any better, but I wasn’t so drunk I don’t know it was me. Lay off Bella — she was in here...”
“She didn’t say so.”
Bella said: “I was nearly asleep and I could hear Gus and Frank talking in the kitchen and then they didn’t talk any more. After a while I got up and went out in the kitchen-Frank was like he is now, and Gus was out — with his head on the table.”