“Why surely. Is something the matter?”
“Nothing-and everything. Clifford, my dear-there’s no need for us to go on as we have been going.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean if you stop to think about it. I’m not necessary to you any more-am I?”
“Why, uh-Hazel, I don’t know why you should say a thing like that. You’ve been swell. You’re a swell girl, Hazel. Nobody could ask for anything more.”
“Mmmm…that’s as may be. I don’t have any secret vices and I’ve never done you any harm that I know of. But that’s not what I mean. You don’t get any pleasure out of my company any more-any lift.”
“Uh…that’s not so. I couldn’t ask for any better pal than you’ve been. We’ve never had an argu — ”
She checked him with her hand. “You still don’t understand me. It might be better if we did quarrel a little. I’d have a better idea of what goes on behind those big solemn eyes of yours. You don’t dislike me. In fact, I think you like me as well as you like anybody. You even like to be with me, sometimes, if you’re tired and I happen to fit your mood. But that isn’t enough. And I’m fond enough of you to be concerned about you, darling. You need something more than I’ve been able to give you.”
“I don’t know how any woman could do any more than you’ve done for me.”
“I do. I do, because I was once able to do it. Do you remember when we first registered? I gave you a lift then. You were happy. It made me happy, too. You were so pathetically pleased with me and with everything about me that sometimes I could cry, just to look at you.”
“I haven’t stopped being pleased with you.”
“Not consciously. But I think I know what happened.”
“What?”
“I was still dancing then. I was the great Hazel, premiere danseuse, I was everything you had never been. Glamour and bright lights and music. I remember how you used to call for me after a performance, looking so proud and so glad to see me. And I was so impressed by your intellect (I still am, dear) and I was so flattered that you paid attention to me.”
“Why you could have had your pick of all the braves in the country.”
“They didn’t look at me the way you did. But that isn’t the point. I’m not really glamorous and never was. I was just a working girl, doing the job she could do best. Now the lights are out and the music has stopped and I’m no longer any help to you.”
“Don’t say that, kid.”
She placed a hand on his arm. “Be honest with yourself, Cliff. My feelings aren’t hurt. I’m not a romantic person. ‘ My feelings have always been maternal, rather than anything else. You’re my baby. You aren’t happy and I want you to be happy.”
He shrugged helplessly. “What is there to do about it? Even if everything you say is true, what is there to do?”
“I could make a guess. Somewhere there is a girl who is everything you thought I was. Someone who can do for you what I once did by just being herself.”
“Hunnh! I don’t know where I’d find her. There isn’t any such person. No, kid, the trouble is with me, not with you. I’m a skeleton at the feast. I’m morose by nature. That’s what.”
“Hummph right back at you. You haven’t found her because you haven’t been looking for her. You’ve fallen into a rut, Cliff. Tuesdays and Fridays, dinner with Hazel. Mondays and Thursdays, work out at the gymnasium. Weekends, go to the country and soak up some natural vitamin D. You need to be shaken out of that. I’m going down tomorrow and register a consent.”
“You wouldn’t really!”
“I certainly shall. Then, if you find someone who pleases your fancy, you can confirm it without any delay.”
“But Hazel, I don’t want you to turn me loose.”
“I’m not turning you loose. I’m just trying to encourage you to have a roving eye. You can come to see me whenever you like, even if you remarry. But no more of this Tuesday-and-Friday stuff. That’s out. Try phoning me in the middle of the night, or duck out of your sacred office during working hours.”