“Why Harry I didnt know you were back.... Oh I wonder if I can.... Oh yes I guess I can. Come along by after the theater.... Isnt that wonderful? You must tell me all about it.” She no sooner puts the receiver down than the bell clutches at her again. “Hello.... No I dont.... Oh yes maybe I do.... When did you get back?” She laughed a tinkling telephone laugh. “But Howard I’m terribly busy.... Yes I am honestly.... Have you been to the show? Well sometime come round after a performance.... I’m so anxious to hear about your trip ... you know ... Goodby Howard.”
A walk’ll make me feel better. She sits at her dressingtable and shakes her hair down about her shoulders. “It’s such a hellish nuisance, I’d like to cut it all off ... spreads apace. The shadow of white Death.... Oughtnt to stay up so late, those dark circles under my eyes.... And at the door, Invisible Corruption.... If I could only cry; there are people who can cry their eyes out, really cry themselves blind ... Anyway the divorce’ll go through....”
Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng
Whose sails were never to the tempest given
Gosh it’s six o’clock already. She starts walking up and down the room again. I am borne darkly fearfully afar.... The phone rings. “Hello.... Yes this is Miss Oglethorpe.... Why hello Ruth, why I haven’t seen you for ages, since Mrs. Sunderland’s.... Oh, do I’d love to see
you. Come by and we’ll have a bite to eat on the way to the theater.... It’s the third floor.”
She rings off and gets a raincape out of a closet. The smell of furs and mothballs and dresses clings in her nostrils. She throws up the window again and breathes deep of the wet air full of the cold rot of autumn. She hears the burring boom of a big steamer from the river. Darkly, fearfully afar from this nonsensical life, from this fuzzy idiocy and strife; a man can take a ship for his wife, but a girl. The telephone is shiveringly beadily ringing, ringing.
The buzzer burrs at the same time. Ellen presses the button to click the latch. “Hello.... No, I’m very sorry I’m afraid you’ll have to tell me who it is. Why Larry Hopkins I thought you were in Tokyo.... They havent moved you again have they? Why of course we must see each other.... My dear it’s simply horrible but I’m all dated up for two weeks.... Look I’m sort of crazy tonight. You call up tomorrow at twelve and I’ll try to shift things around.... Why of course I’ve got to see you immediately you funny old thing.” ... Ruth Prynne and Cassandra Wilkins come in shaking the water off their umbrellas. “Well goodby Larry.... Why it’s so so sweet of both of you.... Do take your things off for a second.... Cassie wont you have dinner with us?”
“I felt I just had to see you.... It’s so wonderful about your wonderful success,” says Cassie in a shaky voice. “And my dear I felt so terribly when I heard about Mr. Emery. I cried and cried, didnt I Ruth?”
“Oh what a beautiful apartment you have,” Ruth is exclaiming at the same moment. Ellen’s ears ring sickeningly. “We all have to die sometime,” gruffly she blurts out.