I laughed and let her kiss me, but remained firm in my stand. “You chase along and have your fun,” I insisted. “I’ll toddle about and feast my eyes upon the sights.”
She finally gave up trying and flew upstairs to change. But I had no sooner ducked her than the Captain appeared and I had to go through it all again.
“Mrs. Gedouin might not like it if you don’t go in after coming on the party,” he argued.
“Can’t help that,” I replied. “I’ve explained it to her and I don’t think she minds terribly.... Anyway, if Marie can do her swimming on the bank, I guess I can, too.”
“Well—of course—a woman might have a legitimate excuse, you know.”
I laughed at that and told him, “I haven’t any excuse like that, but I’ve got one that’s just as good: I just don’t swim, that’s all!... Don’t worry about me—I’ll square myself with the Madame.”
“Oh—it’s not a matter of life and death,” he reassured me laughingly. “Just seems sort of odd for a healthy little devil like you to hate the water.”
“I guess so,” I agreed smilingly. “But then the Madame says that’s what she likes about me: I’m so ‘terribly unique’!”
“Cut yourself a piece of cake!” he retorted cheerfully and emphasized his jolliness by slapping me on the back with such force that I coughed and spluttered and almost fell over.... I watched him depart: he was handsome, even in a bathing suit. My God, wasn’t there anything wrong with that man? No man could be as perfect as he seemed to be—and if he could, he surely wouldn’t fall in love with a little insignificant thing like me. Maybe that was the flaw—if he were perfect, he wouldn’t do it. Also maybe he hadn’t done it. Maybe I was kidding myself.
When the party went down over the hill to the pool, I wandered along and dropped easily into a conversation with the other noncombatant, Marie. We didn’t have much to say to each other, but we managed to pass the time in comments upon the dexterity of this one or the diving of that, and an interesting discussion of the surroundings which ended in Marie’s informing me that it had cost M. Dagnier a pretty fortune to keep this estate intact during the war, because there were so many purposes to which it could be turned due to its nearness to Paris and its many other obvious advantages.