"That Olan b.i.t.c.h. Her mother went crazy. Murdered her father. Dodd told me all about it when we were married.

He wanted to marry her. No she says. Can't do. Insanity.

Very tragic. I ask Dodd if he still loves her. No, no, no.

Kid stuff. All over. Sure. Loves me. Just me. We're fine.

Good marriage, Clint. It was. Then he starts wondering if he can get back here. Mother all crippled up. Lots of old friends. Me, d.a.m.n fool me, I say why not. So a year ago he starts working angles. Pulls strings. Real careful. Back we come. Warren! I hate it. Oh, how I hate it. You see, she's here. And it isn't dead. It never was. Not with her and not with him. Oh, I got the picture. She won't play.

She won't sneak. Very n.o.ble. He wants to see her, it's got to be right out in the open. Like this. Where she can work on him. Make me look bad. Pat the little wife on the head. Take him back just so she can show her muscles. Lots of money but a cheap b.i.t.c.h anyway, you know?"

"I don't think it's like that."

"Oh you don't! What do you know anyway? You're the patsy. You don't take her out. You just make her handy so she can work on him. And I can't do a d.a.m.n thing. I can't say we don't go out with you two. That makes me look worse even. I have to stand still for it. I have to just wait and watch everything blow up. Good sport. Good old Nancy. Fine! Clint, you could fix it. If only she'd just... If you could make her... No, I can't say that. Won't say that. Won't ask you to do anything like that."

"Want to walk some more?"

"It was so wonderful. We had our kind of friends.

Everywhere we went. Not like these people. They act like his job stinks. Like it's a... a hobby. These aren't my kind of people. You know what? He won't let me tell anybody here. It was okay to tell it other places where we lived. Big joke. We could laugh. Here he hasn't got any sense of humor. Know how I met him? Want to bust laughing? I cleaned his teeth. Dental hygienist. Kept coming back to get his teeth cleaned. Had the cleanest teeth in the country. Had to marry him before I wore 'em right down to the gums. Other places we could tell that. Not here.

Here it would be like dirt. Like I'm something to be ashamed of. Gee, it isn't something you can just do. You have to study for it. I studied hard. I was good. What's wrong with that?"

She sounded so lost I wanted to take her in my arms. I wanted to anyway-even drunk she was a desirable woman. And I wanted to smack Dodd Raymond right in the nose. There wasn't a d.a.m.n thing I could say to her.

She stood up suddenly and said in an awed voice, "I'm going to be sick."

We went over to some bushes. I held her and held her head as she was wrenchingly ill. Then I went up to the men's room at the club and got a wet towel and a dry towel and took them back down to her. She bathed her face and then used the towels on the spattered front of her dress. As she bent over, working on her dress, she said, "How awful, Clint. How perfectly awful."

"It happens to the care fullest

"I wasn't very careful. You're sweet, Clint."

"Friend of the family."

"Would you do me one more thing?"

"Sure."

"Drive me home. Don't tell Dodd you're doing it. Tell him when you get back. If you tell him now he'll insist on taking me home. He won't say anything later but he'll have that d.a.m.n patient look that will mean I spoiled the party. Added to everything else, of course. Do you mind?"

"No. Want to leave now?"

"Please."

I drove her to the Raymond home. It was a high shouldered job, mansard roof, iron fence, in a neighborhood that was decaying in slow genteel fashion, preparing its soul for the inevitable invasion of funeral parlor, supermarket and ma.s.seuse. The big house was dark.

"We moved Mother Raymond up to the place at the lake early this afternoon," she explained.

"I wouldn't dare come home alone if she was here. She said it was earlier than usual for her. Then she sighed and she said it would be nice for us two young people to be alone. And she sighed again and said she hoped it wouldn't be so damp at the lake this time of year, and so cold that it would hurt her arthritis. Sigh, sigh, sigh. d.a.m.n it all!"

I walked her up to the door and she handed me the key.

I opened the big door and it creaked as it swung back. She reached inside and found a switch that turned on the light in the big narrow gloomy hallway.

"Clint, I talked too much. I talked an awful lot too much."

"I can't remember a darn word, somehow."

"Can I tell you you're a nice guy?"

"Sure."

"You're a nice guy. What I said is between us. I'm unhappy here and I drank too much and I'm ashamed of myself. This isn't my house and it doesn't seem like my husband any more and I became a fool tonight. I won't do it again. That isn't the way to fight this thing. That's the way to hand him to her on a platter, with an apple and cloves. I'll do better."

"I know you will, Nancy. Temporary lapse. Maybe overdue."

She smiled.

"If I wasn't so messy, I'd like to be kissed."

I put my hands on her shoulders and kissed her forehead.

"That do?"

"It does fine, Clint. Goodnight... and thanks."

I drove back to the club. The dancing had started. The five piece orchestra sounded like an awkward fusion of Meyer Davis and Bobby Hackett. Every other number was mechanical Latin, gourds and all. Dodd wasn't on the floor. I tracked him down over in the men's bar. He was talking down at a man who looked like a bald Pekingese.

When I caught his eye he wound up the conversation and came over to me, gla.s.s in hand.

"Where's Nancy?"

"She didn't feel good. She had me take her home."

"Why didn't you tell me? I could have taken her home."

"She wanted it that way."

"I've never seen her do that before. I can't understand what got into her." He glanced at me sideways, suspicion shining in his eyes.

I made a noncommittal sound. It was no time for a brand new friend of the family to tell husband he knew what was wrong with wife.

"Did she tell you what was eating on her?"

"No. Is something?"

"There must be, for her to act like this. My G.o.d, she knows how this town is. They'll clack for a week. I suppose I ought to get on home. Wait a minute, we all came in your car. Well, I can get a taxi."