“And when he went to Paris that time it was all for your sake, and it was for your sake he kept coming here––oh!”––June rose to her feet with a gesture of intolerance––“if you don’t just adore the ground he walks on,” she said, “you ought to, and that’s all I’ve got to say.”
Esther made no answer; she was looking into the fire with eyes that as yet saw only the ruins of a dream that had been so beautiful, the rapidly receding shadow of the man whom she had once made a giant figure in her life.
“I never want to care for any one again,” she said presently in a hard voice. “You told me once that people were happier if they didn’t love, and I think you were right.”
“I was an idiot to ever say such a thing,” June cried in a rage. “And you’re a bigger idiot if you pretend to think I was right. There’s nothing better in the whole 266 world than being loved–––” Her face flushed like a rose. “If Micky had cared for me even a quarter as well as he does for you I would have married him, and that’s the truth,” she declared. “It was only because I knew he hadn’t anything except friendship to offer me that I knew it wasn’t fair....” She tried to cover the seriousness of her words with a laugh. She lit another cigarette. “And now, having got rid of my heroics, let’s talk sense,” she added more calmly. “But you ought to go to bed. You look worn out. You’ll be a wreck in the morning.”
“I don’t want to go to bed. I have such a lot to tell you. I shall have to leave here, of course; I haven’t got any money. I must try and find a post. I thought of asking Eldred’s to take me back; there might be a vacancy now....” But her voice sounded weary and hopeless.
June swooped down on her.
“You poor tired baby, come along to bed and don’t worry any more. You’ve got me whatever happens, and if the worst comes to the worst there’s always June Mason’s wonderful skin food for both of us to live on.”
They went upstairs together.
“There’s nothing like sunshine to put you on good terms with yourself,” she said philosophically. “Whenever I’m in the dumps or feel that I’m looking particularly plain, I put on my best hat and go out in the sunshine, and I assure you I’m a good-looking woman when I come home again.”
“You’re always better than good-looking,” Esther told her.