“Yep. Right now. And then sometime we’ll see about the future.”
“What do you mean, dear, ‘about the future’? Have I done something I oughtn’t to? Oh, I’m so dreadfully sorry!”
He resolutely put his hands behind him. “Not a thing, God bless you, not a thing. You’re as good as they make ’em. But it’s just— Good Lord, do you realize I’ve got things to do in the world? I’ve got a business to attend to and, you might not believe it, but I’ve got a wife and kids that I’m awful fond of!” Then only during the murder he was committing was he able to feel nobly virtuous. “I want us to be friends but, gosh, I can’t go on this way feeling I got to come up here every so often—”
“Oh, darling, darling, and I’ve always told you, so carefully, that you were absolutely free. I just wanted you to come around when you were tired and wanted to talk to me, or when you could enjoy our parties—”
She was so reasonable, she was so gently right! It took him an hour to make his escape, with nothing settled and everything horribly settled. In a barren freedom of icy Northern wind he sighed, “Thank God that’s over! Poor Tanis, poor darling decent Tanis! But it is over. Absolute! I’m free!”
CHAPTER XXXII
I
His wife was up when he came in. “Did you have a good time?” she sniffed.
“I did not. I had a rotten time! Anything else I got to explain?”
“George, how can you speak like— Oh, I don’t know what’s come over you!”