“I won’t let him,” she retorted. “I’ll walk out of his life and slam the door behind me. We can’t keep up with his set. I’ve been able to put on an act just because Dad was fortunate enough to win some money in a lottery. If it hadn’t been for that, I’d have been living a drab existence with perhaps a two weeks’ vacation with Moms at some beach city, where we’d have a cheap furnished cottage, or maybe a motor trip where we could spend the nights in auto camps... Please, Mr. Mason, don’t let Moms try to do something to give me a chance I could never use.”
Mason walked with her to the door. “You,” he said, “talk like a quitter. If you want him, why don’t you fight for him? If he loves you, he won’t care whether your father was a bookkeeper or...”
“You don’t understand,” she interrupted. “It isn’t as though Roy had met me as the daughter of a bookkeeper. Pops gave me a chance to crash into the ritzy tourist crowd. You know how it is on the Islands. I played I was one of them. I let Roy take my position in life for granted. You see, I... I didn’t know he was going to mean so darn much to me.
“Now I can’t back it up. If I’d met him so he knew all about me, he could go to his set and say, ‘Meet Belle Newberry. She’s not in our set, but I like her.’ That would have been one thing. But to have Celinda Dail know all about... Oh, I can’t explain. You’d have to know Roy to understand... He doesn’t like sham. He hates girls who try to make a play for him. He’d never understand I was just having a little game of makebelieve with myself. He’d think I’d deliberately planned...”
She broke off abruptly, her voice choking.
Mason said, “I see your angle, Belle. It’s your hand. You play it. Personally, I’d shove all my chips into the center of the table. Go talk with your mother, Belle. You can explain...”
The eyes which she turned up to him were laughing through tears. “No,” she said, “ you do it. This is my last night of happiness. I’m leaving it up to you, Perry Mason, to do the dirty work.”
She turned and walked rapidly down the swaying corridor, steadying herself from time to time with an outstretched hand. Mason stood watching her with sympathetic eyes.
Chapter 5
There were many vacant chairs at the captain’s dinner. Sheeted rain lashed against the portholes. Those passengers who made merry with colored paper cups, balloons and pasteboard horns lacked spontaneity. Their merriment seemed merely a forced attempt to comply with maritime conventions. Waiters felt their way, a few steps at a time, half-filled dishes carried in deep serving trays.