“But now that we are together, because, let’s talk about Gloria. I won’t know anything more about Professor Pendragon until Sunday. I’m going there with Dorothy Winslow, who is going to do a portrait of him, but in the meantime I’d feel very much happier if he was out of the house, or if not George, at least the snake. Couldn’t you kill it, Terry? That might make George so angry that he’d leave. And anyway, the snake is the important thing. Without the snake George would be comparatively harmless. You must kill the snake.”
“But, my dear girl, how do you propose that I am to make away with George’s little pet? It belongs to George, you know. I don’t even know where he keeps it, and if I did it is his property and it wouldn’t be legal, you know—”
“I wish you wouldn’t laugh at me—”
“I’m not laughing at you. Even if I can’t quite believe all the things that you believe, I can still see that the situation is serious, but I can’t see how killing the snake would help any. My idea is a bit different and perhaps quite as bizarre in its way. I’ve been thinking that if we could bring Gloria and Professor Pendragon together again, then he would take her away from George and the snake and save us the trouble of taking George and the snake away from her.”
“It sounds good, but there’s no way to do it. I’ve given Gloria my word that I’ll not mention her name to him and the other day she even made me promise not to mention his name to her again.”
“Even so, there must be other people who know both of them.”
“He’s only been in America two years—they’d move in different circles, naturally.”
“Yes, but circles cross—and look here, those pictures will be coming out soon.”
“I don’t imagine he goes to the movies, certainly not now that he’s ill.”
“Yes, but he reads the newspapers; he’ll see her pictures.”