The radio said, “And now, here is Ben Alexander with the news.”
“Good evening, everyone,” said a new voice. “Before we turn to the European headlines, here’s a flash that has just come in. Orlando Flane, the movie star, shot himself at his home at Toluca Lake this afternoon. His sensational rise to world-wide fame began when he was featured in...”
9
April Quest poured two Martinis from the shaker and sat down beside the Saint. Her beauty still gave him that unearthly feeling of having stepped out of ordinary life into a dream — the perfect harmony of her dark copper hair, the exquisite etching of emerald eyes, the impossible sculpture of her features, the way her body flowed into every movement and disturbed the mind with its unconscious suggestion of the fulfilment of all the hungers known to all men.
She said, “Well, you louse, I suppose you’ve stopped feeling human so now you feel safe.”
He said, “That’s a sad reward for being a gentleman.”
“Nuts,” she said. “A gentleman is anyone who does what you want them to do when you want them to do it. A swine is the same guy who does the same thing when you don’t want him to do it. Or who won’t do it when you want him to.”
Simon smiled and tasted his drink.
“You’re a philosopher too, darling. Was that why you wouldn’t talk to me this afternoon?”
“I didn’t want to talk to you in front of all those jerks.”