“I made out I hadn’t heard them--sure! same as you wouldn’t hear a boiler-factory!--and I tried to look away-- I can tell you exactly how every tile looks in the ceiling of that lobby; there’s one with brown spots on it like the face of the devil--and all the time the people there--they were packed in like sardines--they kept making remarks about us, and Zilla went right on talking about the little chap, and screeching that ‘folks like him oughtn’t to be admitted in a place that’s _supposed_ to be for ladies and gentlemen,’ and ‘Paul, will you kindly call the manager, so I can report this dirty rat?’ and-- Oof! Maybe I wasn’t glad when I could sneak inside and hide in the dark! “After twenty-four years of that kind of thing, you don’t expect me to fall down and foam at the mouth when you hint that this sweet, clean, respectable, moral life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, do you? I can’t even talk about it, except to you, because anybody else would think I was yellow. Maybe I am. Don’t care any longer.... Gosh, you’ve had to stand a lot of whining from me, first and last, Georgie!” “Rats, now, Paul, you’ve never really what you could call whined. Sometimes-- I’m always blowing to Myra and the kids about what a whale of a realtor I am, and yet sometimes I get a sneaking idea I’m not such a Pierpont Morgan as I let on to be. But if I ever do help by jollying you along, old Paulski, I guess maybe Saint Pete may let me in after all!” “Yuh, you’re an old blow-hard, Georgie, you cheerful cutthroat, but you’ve certainly kept me going.” “Why don’t you divorce Zilla?” “Why don’t I! If I only could! If she’d just give me the chance! You couldn’t hire her to divorce me, no, nor desert me. She’s too fond of her three squares and a few pounds of nut-center chocolates in between. If she’d only be what they call unfaithful to me! George, I don’t want to be too much of a stinker; back in college I’d ’ve thought a man who could say that ought to be shot at sunrise. But honestly, I’d be tickled to death if she’d really go making love with somebody. Fat chance! Of course she’ll flirt with anything--you know how she holds hands and laughs--that laugh--that horrible brassy laugh--the way she yaps, ‘You naughty man, you better be careful or my big husband will be after you!’--and the guy looking me over and thinking, ‘Why, you cute little thing, you run away now or I’ll spank you!’ And she’ll let him go just far enough so she gets some excitement out of it and then she’ll begin to do the injured innocent and have a beautiful time wailing, ‘I didn’t think you were that kind of a person.’ They talk about these _demi-vierges_ in stories--” “These _whats_?”