“How tragic, to be kept in such agony of suspense for three hours!”
She said it so quickly that he was put on his mettle. “Has it only been three hours? It seemed like six!”
She laughed. “May I ask why you delayed so long?”
“I was stuck.”
“Oh, too bad. With whom?”
“With Dorothy Hollingshead.” He referred to the girl in the scarlet harem costume.
“Oh, really! How exceptional! I suppose you are still stuck.”
“No,” he replied; “I’m free at last.”
They looked at each other and laughed. But Roger thought, “Hell, this is platitudinous”; and felt that there was more to be found in her personality than these rather strained mental gymnastics. “Let’s sit out,” he suggested on the spur of the moment.