"And I've heard you maintain that it wasn't. Now we seem to have swapped beliefs."
He turned to his dressing-table and tied his tie. While so doing he muttered: "Pleasant vacation in sunny South."
And then was silent. I could not think of anything to say. Having finished dressing he thrust his hands into his trousers pockets and began to pace about the disordered room.
"Shall we go out in the sun?" I suggested.
"A dark cave would be more in keepin' with my feelings. Let's stop here a little and talk. What's the idea anyway?"
"Why, the usual idea, I suppose."
"John to give Lucy a divorce, you and Lucy to marry shortly after, and Jock and Hurry to go to hell! I think less than nothing of the usual idea. To begin with, why should John give Lucy a divorce? She's the one that's done all the harm. I know I'm her brother. It only helps me to see her character clearer than other people do. Well, say he isn't the fool I think he is. Say he won't give her a divorce? What then?"
"Hadn't we better cross that bridge when we come to it?"
"In the usual way, I suppose. No. I'm too old-fashioned to like usual ways of doing things. Furthermore, I like you and Lucy too much. I don't want to see her life ruined, and John after all is a manufacturer of ammunition. How about crossin' the bridge and findin' him on the other side with a big bang-stick in his hand?"
I shrugged my shoulders, though at heart I was not indifferent to the picture which Schuyler had conjured up.