_Again the aid and comfort to the idiot Puritan: don't know why it should help to avoid the phrasing of a direct lie--superstition--somehow it does though and he knows it--my love is wiser than other men_--"Yes, it could have been like that, Mr. Warner." A half-seen glimpse of something kind in black-haired Dolores Acevedo might mean feminine sympathy, fellow-feeling--or something else, or nothing at all. The experts say, Callista remembered, that a person with an obsessive notion never actually performs the fantastic act he imagines performing--like for instance leaning forward in this chair and saying: "Dolly, I bet you know how it feels to go nuts for a good lay." "After going into the bedroom, what is the next thing that you remember positively?" "The next thing--the next thing I am really certain about is hearing Ann walk across the living-room--her high heels--to the front door. I heard the door close, heard her car start up and drive away. It somehow--released me--I can't think of a better word. I unlocked the bedroom, came out, got myself a drink of water. I went into the kitchenette to get that instead of to the bathroom. Then--not right away but very soon--I saw the brandy bottle had been pulled forward on the shelf, and there was a glass with a few drops in the bottom, and I knew what must have happened. It brought me out of my fog anyway. I knew I had to get to her at once if I could, and I wasn't able to think beyond that. What I ought to have done--I know it now--was call the police and tell them the emergency. They might have got to her in time and done something for her. But I was shocked silly, I couldn't think of anything except going after her myself, and that's what I did--tried to do." "Well, you didn't lose any time, I'm sure." "No, just grabbed my handbag off the living-room table and ran down to the garage. It's back of the apartment--overhead door always sticks, I remember I had to struggle with it as usual but it didn't hold me up long." _Nice old Em Lake, you had such a time yearning after my friend's mammaries--how will these do? Not big, but I bet anything you've seen worse. Drool, old boy, drool all you like if it makes a difference. Will I twitch my jacket back a little? Better, huh? Besides, away up there, sixty-five or whatever it is, doesn't it seem too bad to die at nineteen?_ "Can you judge about what time elapsed, from hearing Ann's car start to getting your own out on the road?" "It could have been as much as ten minutes. Until I saw that brandy bottle I was just dazed and stupid, not hurrying about anything. I don't know how long I was, coming out of the bedroom, getting that drink of water. I didn't look at the clock or anything, no reason to." "To be sure. Well--you drove on out to Shanesville?"