The operative, Larrey, had made many adverse reports against him, but in the blizzard of reports against hundreds of thousands of suspects that turned the Department of Justice files into a huge snowdrift these earlier accounts of Nuddle’s treasonable utterances and deeds were forgotten.
The self-destruction of Nicky Easton took its brief space in the newspapers overcrowded with horrors, and he, too, was all but forgotten.
When, after some further time, Mamise was able to call upon Davidge in her wheeled chair, she found him strangely 321 lacking in cordiality. She was bitterly hurt at first, until she gleaned from his manner that he was trying to remove himself gracefully from her heart because of his disability.
She amazed him by her sudden laughter. He was always slow to understand why his most solemn or angry humor gave her so much amusement.
While her nurse and his were talking at a little distance it pleased her to lean close to Davidge and tease him excruciatingly with a flirtatious manner.
“Before very long I’m going to take up that bet we made.”
“What bet?”
“That the next proposal would come from me. I’m going to propose the first of next week.”
“If you do, I’ll refuse you.”
Though she understood him perfectly, it pleased her to assume a motive he had never dreamed of.