“I haven’t taken them over yet.”

“I heard that you had bought a place up in Westchester, but I asked Nancy, and she said she didn’t know. I don’t think Nancy appreciates you, Dick.”

“That so often happens.”

“I mean that seriously.”

“It’s a serious matter—being appreciated. The only person who I ever thought really appreciated me was Billy’s old aunt. Every time she saw me she used to say to me, ‘You’re such a clean-looking young man I can’t take my eyes off you.’”

215

“You are clean-looking, and awfully good-looking too.”

“Do you mind if I smoke, Betty?” Dick carefully disengaged his hand from her clinging fingers, and a look of something like intelligence passed between them, before Betty turned her ingenuous child’s stare on him again.

“Not if you’ll give me a cigarette, too.”

Dick fumbled through his pockets.