"But it hasn't?"
"No."
"And—you are in love?"
"Yes."
"With John Burleson?"
Rita looked up from the burnished disorder of her hair:
"I have been in love with him for three years," she said, "and you are the only person in the world except myself who knows it."
Valerie rose and walked over to Rita and seated herself beside her. Then she put one arm around her; and Rita bit her lip and stared at space, swinging her slender foot.
"You poor dear," said Valerie. Rita's bare foot hung inert; the silken slipper dropped from it to the floor; and then her head fell, sideways, resting on Valerie's shoulder, showering her body with its tangled gold.
Valerie said, thoughtfully: "Girls don't seem to have a very good chance…. I had no idea about Cardemon—that he was that kind of a man. A girl never knows. Men can be so attractive and so nice…. And so many of them are merciless…. I suppose you thought you loved him."