"It's all right, Lucy." I had to speak loudly at first, as if she was deaf. "You shan't suffer like this. I tell you you shan't—not if I am damned to hell."
I knew now that she was listening, the sobs became muffled and less frequent. "It's you and me against the world now," I said. "There'll be no more flimflamming. I promised John to wait a year. That doesn't matter. A promise made at your expense won't hold.… When is your husband coming back?"
"…hour," was all the answer I got.…
"Then there's not much time left. Try to pull yourself together. We've got to make all our plans right now, and there's not much time."
"You will take me away?"
"Of course. Now listen. There's no sense in putting your husband on his guard. Let him think that we are both agreed to the year's probation. I'll look up things and engage passage. I'll do that this afternoon. Tonight I'll go to Hot Springs to see my father and get money. My own balance is very low, unfortunately. Day after tomorrow I'll be in town again. Now, how are we going to communicate?"
I can't say that she was calm now, but she no longer sobbed, and her mind was in working order again.
"By telephone," she said. "Every morning when I know John's plans for the day I'll let you know, and so you'll know when to call me up."
Already the anticipations of our great adventure were bringing back the color to her cheeks and the sparkle to her eyes. I smiled at her. "Don't be too cheerful," I said; "we might get ourselves suspected."
"Couldn't we just tell John that we had decided to go—and go?"