“I thought you were so I dove in.”
“Good thing you did.”
They laughed again.
“Well, we’ve cheered up,” Catherine said.
“Thank God,” David said. “I love you, Devil, and really I didn’t kiss her to make all that.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Catherine said. “I saw you. It was a miserable effort.”
“I wish she’d go away.”
“Don’t be heartless,” Catherine said. “And I did encourage her.”
“I tried not
“I egged her on about you. I’ll go out and find her.”
“No. Wait a little while. She’s too sure of herself.”
“How can you say that, David? You just broke her all up.
“I did not.”
‘Well something did. I’m going to go and get her.”
But it wasn’t necessary because the girl came back to the bar where they were standing and blushed and said, “I’m sorry.” Her face was washed and she had brushed her hair and she came up to David and kissed him on the mouth very quickly and said, “I like my present. Did someone take my drink?”
“I threw it out,” Catherine said. “David will make a new one.
“I hope you still like having two girls,” she said. “Because I am yours and I’m going to be Catherine’s too.”
“I don’t go in for girls,” Catherine said. It was very quiet and her voice did not sound right either to herself or to David.
“Don’t you ever?”
“I never have.”
“I can be your girl, if you ever want one, and David’s too.”
“Don’t you think that’s sort of a vast undertaking?” Catherine asked.
“That’s why I came here,” the girl said. “I thought that was what you wanted.”
“I’ve never had a girl,” Catherine said.
“I’m so stupid,” the girl said. “I didn’t know. Is it true? You’re not making fun of me?”
“I’m not making fun of you.”
“I don’t know how I could be so stupid,” the girl said. She means mistaken David thought and Catherine thought it too.
That night in bed Catherine said, “I never should have let you in for any of it. Not for any part of it.”
“I wish we’d never seen her.”
“It might have been something worse. Maybe to go through with it and get rid of it that way is best.”
“You could send her away.
“I don’t think that’s the way to clear it now. Doesn’t she do anything to you?”
“Oh sure.”
“I knew she did. But I love you and all this is nothing. You know it is too.”
“I don’t know about it, Devil.”
‘Well we won’t be solemn. I can already tell it’s death if you’re solemn.”
Chapter Twelve
IT WAS THE THIRD DAY of the wind but it was not as heavy now and he sat at the table and read the story over from the start to where he had left off, correcting as he read. He went on with the story, living in it and nowhere else, and when he heard the voices of the two girls outside he did not listen. When they went by the window he lifted his hand and waved. They waved and the dark girl smiled and Catherine put her fingers to her lips. The girl looked very pretty in the morning, her face shining and her color high. Catherine was beautiful as always. He heard the car start and noted it was the Bugatti. He went back into the story. It was a good story and he finished it shortly before noon.
It was too late to have breakfast and he was tired after working and did not want to drive the old Isotta into town with its bad brakes and huge malfunctioning motor although the key was with a note Catherine had left saying they had gone to Nice and would look in at the cafe for him on their way home.
What I would like, he thought, is a tall cold liter of beer in a thick heavy glass and a pomme l’huile with coarse ground
peppercorns on it. But the beer on this coast was worthless and he thought happily of Paris and other places he had been and was pleased he had written something he knew was good and that he had finished it. This was the first writing he had finished since they were married. Finishing is what you have to do, he thought. If you don’t finish, nothing is worth a damn. Tomorrow I’ll pick up the narrative where I left it and keep right on until I finish it. And how are you going to finish it? How are you going to finish it now?