“It’s your old home town, Bernie. You can’t get back of that.”
“I don’t want any ‘old home town.’ I’ve risen above it. I was simply unlucky enough to be born in the little tank-burg, and that’s plenty. And as soon as possible I shook clear from it and all it stood for! I got over being a hick quite a while ago, Nathan. And I hate everything that reminds me of it as the devil hates holy water. I don’t want to have to think of the disgusting depths I’ve come up from.”
“I’m sorry, Bernie.”
“You’re not half so sorry as I am! Paris nearly did for me. Father and mother—especially mother!—ugh!”
“What about your mother? You thought she was pretty classy once——”
“Nathan Forge! Don’t say ‘classy’ or I’ll scream. More provincialism! ‘Classy’ was one of mother’s favorite words. The other was ‘blood.’ Blood! And for all her grand airs, she was cheap as dirt! But how could I know it until I got out in the world and had to suffer for it? And God, what a Golgotha it’s been! When I first married Wallace and was taken into his family, life was one long nightmare of ‘break’ after ‘break’ before his people. They were Real Blood. And they looked down on me—righteously—from the day he brought me home until the day I divorced him. I’ve had enough of vulgarians and lowbrows. I’ll have you know I’m a lady!” And in proof that she was a lady, Bernice lit another cigarette and inhaled the smoke.
“I apologize, Bernice,” the man offered.
“Oh, you needn’t apologize. Don’t depreciate yourself. That’s ‘hick’ too! And don’t sit sprawled out so, as though you didn’t know what to do with your hands and your feet. Paris is stamped all over you, from the cravat in your collar to the cut of your shoes. And yet Ted Thorne is sending you to the Orient to represent him! Oh, well, after all, he’s ‘hick’ too. Probably doesn’t know any better. It’s none of my business!”
Nathan’s face burned. She was the same old Bernie. He might have known. He tried to appear at ease—although nothing the woman could have done would have made him more self-conscious—and he smoked for a moment in perturbed silence. She broke that silence by exclaiming angrily:
“And I wish, as a favor to me, that you’d stop eating that cigar! And I’ll bet it cost five cents and came from Tom Edwards’ cigar store next to the newspaper office——”