“But that isn’t meeting her. If he’s at all like Gloria, he’ll be too proud to look her up; besides we may be talking nonsense. How do we know that they don’t really hate each other?”
“That’s not the worst. People don’t usually hate over ten years. They may be utterly indifferent. I realize that possibility, but I don’t believe they are indifferent. It’s all just guessing.”
“The simplest way would be to get rid of the snake,” persisted Ruth.
“Yes, I know, but who’s to do it, and how?”
“You’re to do it, and I suppose that I, being in the house, should plan the means—find out where he keeps his pet and how to kidnap it.”
“Even if it has the significance you suppose, what’s to prevent him getting a new one?”
“They don’t sell them in the department stores, you know,” said Ruth, smiling.
“Let’s wait until you see Pendragon again before we do anything rash,” Terry closed the discussion.
He came home with Ruth, who wondered if Gloria would observe them coming together, and if it might not wake in Gloria some latent jealousy.
“I’ve persuaded Ruth to take up cartooning as a profession,” he announced. His putting it into words like that before all of them seemed to make it final.