There was a pause when he had finished, which, waiting, he did not dare to break.
“There is one little thing I almost forgot to tell you,” she said, very softly, very slowly, very clearly. “I do love you. I have never loved you so much as right now. After our dozen years you’ve bowled me over at last. And I was bowled over from the beginning, although I did not know it. I have made up my mind now, once and for all.”
She hung up abruptly.
With the thought that he knew how a man felt receiving a reprieve at the eleventh hour, Dick sat on, thinking, forgetful that he had not hooked the receiver, until Bonbright came in from the secretaries’ room to remind him.
“It was from Mr. Bishop,” Bonbright explained. “Sprung an axle. I took the liberty of sending one of our machines to bring them in.”
“And see what our men can do with repairing theirs,” Dick nodded.
Alone again, he got up and stretched, walked absently the length of the room and back.
“Well, Martinez, old man,” he addressed the empty air, “this afternoon you’ll be defrauded out of as fine a histrionic stunt as you will never know you’ve missed.”
He pressed the switch for Paula’s telephone and rang her up.
Oh Dear answered, and quickly brought her mistress.