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and milliners with goods at triple prices from New York. Upon the
trellised veranda of the Breakers two hundred women stepped right,
stepped left, wheeled, and slid in that then celebrated calisthenic
known as the double-shuffle, while in half-time to the music two
thousand bracelets clicked up and down on two hundred arms.
At the Everglades Club after dark Paula and Lowell Thayer and
Anson and a casual fourth played bridge with hot cards. It seemed to
Anson that her kind, serious face was wan and tired – she had been
around now for four, five, years. He had known her for three.
"Two spades."
"Cigarette? ... Oh, I beg your pardon. By me."
"By."
"I'll double three spades."
There were a dozen tables of bridge in the room, which was
filling up with smoke. Anson's eyes met Paula's, held them
persistently even when Thayer's glance fell between them....
"What was bid?" he asked abstractedly.
"Rose of Washington Square" sang the young people in the
corners:
"I'm withering there
In basement air- "
The smoke banked like fog, and the opening of a door filled the
room with blown swirls of ectoplasm. Little Bright Eyes streaked past
the tables seeking Mr.. Conan Doyle among the Englishmen who
were posing as Englishmen about the lobby.
"You could cut it with a knife."
"...cut it with a knife."
"...a knife."
At the end of the rubber Paula suddenly got up and spoke to
Anson in a tense, low voice. With scarcely a glance at Lowell Thayer,
they walked out the door and descended a long flight of stone steps -
in a moment they were walking hand in hand along the moonlit
beach.
"Darling, darling...." They embraced recklessly, passionately, in
a shadow.... Then Paula drew back her face to let his lips say what
she wanted to hear – she could feel the words forming as they kissed
again.... Again she broke away, listening, but as he pulled her close
once more she realized that he had said nothing - only "Darling!
Darling! " in that deep, sad whisper that always made her cry.