Irene spoke as one whose philosophy is quite equal to any demand that may be made upon it. She dilated upon the general perfidy of man as though her personal disappointment was negligible and only to be mentioned for purposes of illustration. She continued in this vein so long that Grace began to fear she was not to learn just what had happened to shatter Irene’s faith in Kemp.
“Let’s consider all the male species dead and buried! I’m dying of curiosity. Just what happened to you and Tommy?”
“He lied to me, that’s all; and I found him out.”
“That’s too bad; I’m ever so sorry,” Grace replied, not knowing whether Irene sought consolation for the loss of her lover or wanted to be congratulated on her prescience in foreseeing the inevitable end of the affair.
“Oh, it’s all right with me! But I can’t deny that when it came it was a jar. You see Tommy’s mighty good fun and awfully clever. I learned a lot from Tommy; he used to tell me everything. I’ll wager he’s sorry now he told me a lot of most intimate things, about people and business and even his family affairs; but they’re safe, I’d never betray his confidence even if he has gone back on me.”
“Of course not; you’d never do that,” Grace assented, and saw that Irene was pleased by this testimony to her high-mindedness. “Maybe there’s some mistake about it. Of course you’ll give Tommy a chance to explain.”
“Oh, I gave him the chance all right enough. It was over the telephone and, my dear, you should have heard him gasp when I put it up to him!”
“Go on and tell me what Tommy did or let’s stop talking about it!”
“I’m going to tell you. You and Minnie Lawton are the only people I could tell. I’ve been meeting Tommy at Minnie’s apartment and she has to know why I’m not going there any more. Tommy’s always told me I was the only one—that old, old story! Well, a certain person—he didn’t know I knew Tommy—was asking me about him the other day. He said he’d seen Tommy in Chicago with a very nifty girl he seemed to be chummy with. He saw them together last Saturday night. Now, Tommy had a date with me for Saturday evening but he told me Friday he was going to Chicago unexpectedly with his wife for the opera. He didn’t take his wife to Chicago—I easily found that out. Tommy went to Chi all right enough but not to hear Mary Garden. So, there’s the end of our little romance.”
“What did Tommy have to say for himself?”