“It’s all right for us to wait here for it?” I managed to seem meek and uncertain of myself.
“Quite all right,” he assured me, smiling.
I rejoined Bertha. After the clerk’s attention was diverted elsewhere, I strolled over to the newsstand. A few moments later I gave Bertha a signal to join me; then we walked around to the entrance to the drugstore. I stopped long enough to play a pinball machine; then we were out on the street.
“Where to?” Bertha asked.
“The hotel first — long enough to get packed up and checked out.”
“Then where?”
“Probably the apartment.”
“Both of us?”
“Yes. That studio couch can be made into an extra bed.”
Bertha said, “What’s the idea? You’re running away as though you’d done it.”