“‘Do you suppose,’ Ethel continued, ‘that she does it by telephone?’”
“‘My dearest,’ I responded, ‘he must do it all for her, of course, you know.’”
“‘I doubt that very much, Richard. And she strikes me as being the sort of character for whom a mere telephone would not be enough excitement. The nerves of those people require more and more stimulants to give them any sensation at all. I believe that she sits in his private office and watches the ticker.’”
“‘Why not give her a ticker in her bedroom while you are about it, Ethel?’ I suggested.”
“But Ethel could not smile. ‘I think that is perfectly probable,’ she answered. And then, ‘Oh, Richard, isn’t it mean!’ At this I took her hand, and she—but again I abstain from dwelling upon those circumstances of the engaged which are familiar to you all.”
“The change of May into June, and the change of June into July, did not mellow Ethel’s bitter feelings. I remember the day after Petunias defaulted on their interest that she exclaimed, ‘I hope I shall never meet her!’ We always called Mr. Beverly’s mother ‘she’ now. ‘For if I were to meet her,’ continued Ethel, ‘I feel I should say something that I should regret. Oh, Richard, I suppose we shall have to give up that house on Park Avenue!’”
“I put a cheerful and even insular face on the matter, for I could not bear to see Ethel so depressed. But it was hard work for me. Some few of my investments were evidently good; but it always seemed as if it was into these that I had happened to put not much money, while the bulk of my fortune was entangled in the others. Besides the usual Midsummer faintness that overtakes the stock market, my own specialties were a good deal more than faint. On the 20th of August I took the afternoon train to spend my two weeks’ holiday at Lenox; and during much of the journey I gazed at the Wall Street edition of the afternoon paper that I had purchased as I came through the Grand Central Station. Ethel and I read it in the evening.”
“‘I wonder what she’s buying now?’ said Ethel, vindictively.”
“‘Well, I can’t help feeling sorry for her,’ I answered, with as much of a smile as I could produce.”
“‘That is so unnecessary, Richard! She can easily afford to gratify her gambling instinct.’”