DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER BY IAN FLEMING

She was wearing a heavy cream Shantung silk shirt and a charcoal skirt in a cotton-and-wool mixture. The neutral colours showed off her café-au-lait sunburn. The small square Carder watch with the black strap was her only jewellery and the short fingernails on the small brown hand that lay over his were un-painted.. The reflected sunlight from outside shone on the pale gold heavy falling swerve of her hair, in the depths of the chatoyant grey eyes, and on the glint of white teeth between the luxurious lips dial were half open with her question.

“No,” said Bond. “No, I won’t mind, Tiffany. Everything about you’s fine.”

She looked into his eyes and was satisfied. The drinks came and she withdrew her hand and observed him quizzically over the rim of her glass.

“Now tell me a few things,” she said. “First of all, what do you do and who are you working for? At the beginning, in the hotel, I thought you were a crook. But somehow as soon as you had gone out the door I knew you weren’t. Guess I should have warned ABC and we’d have avoided a lot of fuss. But I just, didn’t. Come on, James. Start giving.”

“I work for the Government,” said Bond. “They want to stop this diamond smuggling.”

“Sort of secret agent?”

“Just a Civil Servant.”

“Okay. So what are you going to do with me when we get to London? Lock me up?”

“Yes. In the spare room of my flat.”

“That’s better. Shall I become a subject of the Queen like you? I’d rather like to be a subject person.”

“I expect we could fix that.”

“Are you married?” She paused. “Or anything?”

“No. I occasionally have affairs.”

“So you’re one of those old-fashioned men who like sleeping with women. Why haven’t you ever married?”

“I expect because I think I can handle life better on my own. Most marriages don’t add two people together. They subtract one from the other.”

Tiffany Case thought this over. “Maybe there’s something in that,” she said finally. “But it depends what you want to add up to. Something human or something inhuman. You can’t be complete by yourself.”

“What about you?”

The girl hadn’t wanted the question. “Maybe I just settled for the inhuman,” she said shortly. “And who in hell do you think I should have married? Shady Tree?”

“There must have been lots of others.”

“Well, there weren’t,” she said angrily. “Maybe you think I shouldn’t have mixed with these people. Well, I guess I just got off on the wrong step.” The flare of anger died and she looked at him defensively. “It does happen to people, James. It really does. And sometimes it’s really not their fault.”

James Bond put out his hand and held hers tightly. “I know, Tiffany,” he said. “Felix told me a bit about things. That’s why I haven’t asked any questions. Just don’t think about it. It’s here and today now. Not yesterday.” He changed the subject. “Now you give me some facts. For instance, why are you called Tiffany and what’s it like being a dealer at the Tiara? How the hell did you come to be so good? It was brilliant the way you handled those cards. If you can do that you can do anything.”

“Thanks, pal,” said the girl ironically. “Like what? Playing the boats? And the reason I got called Tiffany is because when I was born, dear father Case was so sore I wasn’t a boy he gave my mother a thousand bucks and a powder case from Tiffany’s and walked out. Joined the Marines. In the end he got killed at Iwo Jima. So my mother just called me Tiffany Case and set about earning a living for us both. Started with a string of call-girls and then got more ambitious. Maybe that doesn’t sound so good to you?” She looked at him half defensively and half pleadingly.

“Doesn’t worry me,” said Bond dryly. “You weren’t one of the girls.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Then the place got busted by the gangs.” She paused and drank the rest of her Martini. “And I lit out on my own. The usual jobs a girl takes. Then I found my way to Reno. They’ve got a School of Dealing there and I signed on and worked like hell at it. Took the full course. Majored in craps, roulette and blackjack. You can earn good money dealing. Two hundred a week. The men like to have girls dealing, and it gives the women confidence. They think you’ll be kind to them. Sisters under the skin kind of. The men dealers frighten them. But don’t get the idea it’s fun. It reads better than it lives.”

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