There was no misunderstanding her. For a full minute Warren stared at
her in silence. In that minute he remembered some of his recent talks
with Magsie, some of his notes and presents, he remembered the plan
that involved a desert island, sea-bathing, moonlight, and solitude.
"I think, if you had been listening to us," Magsie went on, as he did
not answer, "you could not have objected to one word I said! And
Rachael was lovely, Greg. She told me she would not contest it--"
"She told you THAT?"
"Well, she said several times that it must be as you decide." Magsie
dimpled demurely. "And I was--nice, too!" she asserted youthfully. "I
didn't tell her about this--and this!" and with one movement of her
pretty hand Magsie indicated the big emerald on her ring finger and the
heavy bracelet of mesh gold about her wrist. Suddenly her face
brightened, and with an eager movement she leaned across the narrow
table, and caught his hand in both her own. "Ah, Greg," she said
tenderly, "does it seem true, that after all these months of talking,
and hoping, you and I are going to belong to each other?"
"But I have no idea that Rachael is seriously considering a divorce,"
Warren said slowly. "Why should she? She has no cause!"
"She thinks she has!" Magsie said triumphantly.
"She isn't the sort of woman to think things without reason," Warren
said.
"She doesn't have to think," Magsie assured him with the same air of
satisfaction; "she knows! Everyone knows how much you and I have been
together: everyone knows that you backed 'The Bad Little Lady'--"
"Everyone has no right to draw conclusions from that!" Warren said.
Magsie shrugged her shoulders.
"And what do we care, Greg? I don't care what the world thinks as long
as I have you! Let them have the letters, let them buzz--we'll be miles
away, and we won't care! And in a year or two, Greg, we'll come back,
and they'll all flock about us--you'll see! That's the advantage of a
name like the Gregory name! Why, who among them all dropped Clarence on
Paula's account, or Rachael on Clarence's?"
"Your going to see her has certainly--complicated things," Warren said
reflectively.
"On the contrary," Magsie said confidently, "it has cleared things up.
It had to come, Greg; every time you and I talked about it we brought
the inevitable nearer! Why, you weren't ever at home. Could that have
gone on forever? You had no home, no wife, no freedom. I was simply
getting sick of the whole thing! Now at least we're all open and
aboveboard; all we've got to do is quietly set the wheels in motion!"
"Well, I'll tell you what must be the first step, Magsie," Warren said
after thought; "I'm going home now to see Rachael. I'll talk the whole
thing over with her. Then I'll come to see you."
"Positively?" asked Magsie.
"Positively."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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