Boland laughed. “Have a drink as you go out. You need something to cheer you up.”
Grogan stopped. “Where’s Harry?” he asked suddenly.
Boland flushed and his brow darkened.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “He and I have had a misunderstanding. He insists on marrying this Welcome girl. I don’t know where he is and I don’t care.”
Grogan looked surprised. “John,” he said, “I’d feel sorry for you if I didn’t know you are lying. You do care. You can’t conceal it. You care now, and worse you’ll be caring more and more as time goes on. John, there are some things even you can’t do.”
“Well, Mike, what are they?”
“You can’t beat Nature and you can’t beat God. Good day.”
In vain Boland scoffed at Grogan’s sentimentalism. Again and again the words rose in his mind:
You can’t beat Nature and you can’t beat God.
The telephone rang. At the other end of the wire was that senator who had been at his conference. He asked Boland in a frightened voice if he had seen the papers, and then rang off.