“Oh,” she said in a flat voice, and looked at her finger-nails carefully. I sat on the bed, in my B.V.D.’s. I was beginning to feel like hell, but I couldn’t get to sleep until I got this straightened.
“Tell me, baby,” I said gently.
She looked up at me, and her eyes were big and wild. “Nick, do you love me?” she said. “Do you really love me? Not just for yesterday and to-day, but for to-morrow and all the to-morrows?”
I put my hand over hers. “You’re everythin’ to me, Mardi,” I said, and meant it.
She said, “Will you do something big for me? Something that’ll mean you love me?”
I nodded. “Sure, what is it?”
“I want you and me to go away. Never come back to this State. To go south a long way, and start all over again—will you do that?”
“You mean never come back?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“But, Mardi, we’ve gotta live. My connections are here. I’ve lived here so long. I’m known here. I’ll keep away with you until the trial is over, but if I’ve to earn dough it’s here that I can earn it.”