But she refused. The kiddies were put to bed at six-thirty and she wanted to be back before then.
“I’ll take the train back. Don’t bother about that.”
She came downstairs presently buttoned into a gray topcoat. From under a tight little turban the sunset hair waved, held by a gray veil.
They tore out of the grounds, along roads of glass at a pace that left both breathless. Nancy felt the sluggishness of the past few days lashed out of her blood. It flew happily to her cheeks, tingled to her finger tips, sent the laughter into her lips as the man beside her gave the latest bits of Broadway gossip, the latest funny story from a region teeming with them. She stored them up for Dick, picturing his enjoyment when on his return next day she should give them with all her embellishment of mimicry.
The first pungent scent of summer, clover and sweet grass and occasional great mounds of hay, rose from the meadows as they sped past. The vault above was [320] ]intensely turquoise and without a cloud. It would be a heavenly night with a young silver moon etched against the sky and all things filmed by its light. She wished Dick were going to be home. They could have taken a tearing ride like this with all the countryside to themselves.
The breezes became sultry. City smoke crept in. The car jerked over cobbles, dodging barelegged youngsters and wedging at last into the clatter of Queensboro Bridge. Nancy’s nose crinkled. She had come to hate the city with its odors and noises and strained faces and heavy air, all the elements which had passed unnoticed when she was part of it and a struggler.
From the cluttered Eastside they went through the district whose boarded doors and windows like the blank eyes of the blind proclaimed it fashionable; then the dust-covered green of the Park and out at the street in the Sixties where down the block three windows blinked coquettishly.
Nancy descended, held out a hand. “Good luck, Ted. And let’s hear it when you’ve got it ready.”
His alert gaze was bright with satisfaction. “You’ve set me on the right track. You always do.”
She waved as he drove off, then rang the bell beside the big door. It swung back slowly, heavily, and the head-groom stood in the opening. She caught the look of surprise that swept over his face, passing as quickly after the manner of well-trained servants who are supposed to have no emotions.