“How do I know if I’d be having two? How could I be sure? How do I know where I stand anyhow? How do I know where my husband is, or if I have any husband by this time any more at all—even one?”
Lili in her pink dress and overloaded hat, with the little dog straining and pouncing at the end of its leash, seemed really an almost tragic figure. There was something so petitioning, so frankly primitive about her outburst.
“You’re just as cosy as an iceburg, Jerry,” she said, even simulating a small shiver. “You seem to forget all about that night—you know—about us being together at Hilo, and how you loved me then. Oh, my Gawd!” she ended in a lamentation of moist bitterness. “It shows you can’t believe a word a man says to you, and I just think I’ll go and commit suicide!” After which she seemed to feel almost cheerful.
And then—then something most unexpected happened!
Just as she was saying, with a weak little resigned sigh, that she’d have to be getting aboard, a dapper man in a check suit came up and tipped his hat.
Lili brightened amazingly. Her manner grew excited and gracious. She began beaming.
“Oh, here you are now!” she laughed. “I was looking for you, and waiting till I didn’t dare wait any longer for fear of missing the boat. I want to introduce you to Mr. Stewart, an old friend of mine,” she went on cordially. And now she was beaming on them both. It was a situation!
The newcomer, whose name Jerome didn’t get exactly, shook hands, with some slight asperity, and began edging up toward Lili in a faintly proprietary way. All at once Jerome noticed that Lili’s wedding ring had mysteriously disappeared; and from that time on he grinned without ceasing until Lili and the new friend she’d picked up and the little prancing dog had moved off out of sight round the corner. Her friend was going on to Yokohama too. “On to Yokohama!”
“Can you beat it?” muttered Jerome.
And then, with just one brief sigh, he went about his own affairs.