Caroline, behaving not so well, seemed to him a much more human and sympathetic figure, though her nose took on a high shine unknown to Nancy’s demurer and more discreetly served features; but Billy evidently preferred Nancy’s deportment, which was on the surface calm and reassuring.
“Nancy’s a sport,” he pointed out to Caroline enthusiastically, “no fly in the ointment 108 gets her goat. She enjoys herself even when she’s perfectly miserable.”
“She doesn’t feel the heat the way I do,” Caroline snapped.
“I feel the heat,” Nancy said, “but I—”
“She’s got a system,” Dick cut in savagely: “she stands it just as long as she can, and then she takes it out of me in some diabolical fashion.”
Nancy’s gray-blue eyes took on the far-away look that those who loved her had learned to associate with her most baffling moments.
“Just by being especially nice to Dick,” she said thoughtfully, “I can make him more furious with me than in any other way.”
Nancy and Caroline finished their sloppy ices at the table together while Dick and Billy sought the solace of a pipe in the garage outside.
“I don’t understand coming into Connecticut to-day,” Nancy said as soon as they were alone; “it seems like such a stupid excursion for Dick to make. He’s usually pretty good at picking out places to go. In fact, he has a kind of genius for it.”