Are there any other
little chores I can do for you?"
"No, thanks. You're one damned good sport, and I'm infernally
sorry I--"
"Let's not begin on sorries. Good night!"
And such was unmarriage _a la mode_.
CHAPTER II
And now having felt sorry for everybody else, Charity began to
feel pleasantly sorry for Jim Dyckman. Her own rebuke of him for
assaulting Cheever had absolved him. In the retrospect, the attack
took on a knightliness of devotion. She recalled his lonely dogging
of her footsteps. If he had played the dog, after all, she loved
dogs. What was so faithful, trustworthy, and lovable as a dog?
But how was Charity to get word to Jim of her new heart? She could
not whistle him back. She could hardly go to him and apologize for
having been a good wife to a bad husband. And a married lady simply
must not say to a bachelor: "Pardon me a moment, while I divorce my
present consort. I'd like to wear your name for a change."
Charity might have been capable even of such a derring-do if she
had known that Jim Dyckman's bachelorhood was threatened with
immediate extinction by the Thropps. But she could not know. For,
however Jim's soul may have been mumbling, "Help, help!" he made no
audible sound. Unwilling brides may shriek for rescue, but unwilling
bridegrooms must not complain.
By a coincidence that was not strange Charity selected for her lawyer
Travers McNiven, the very man that Jim Dyckman selected. All three
had been friends since childhood.
Pages:
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453