"Gertrude ... I just wanted to talk with you ... and be with you. I...."
"Do hurry!"
The words stuck in his gullet.
"Well, I can't wait here all day, you know!"
"Gertrude ..."
"Sorry, but I'll have to see you some other time. Good-bye!" And she hastened away to her meeting.
Eustace gazed after her stonily.
"You might have saved me—if you had cared!"
He had craned out to her for help, and she had deliberately sidled away from him.
"Hah!" he quacked bitterly. "What difference does it make! What does anything matter! Hah! I flap my wings at the world!"