"Am I? You're just what the doctor ordered to put me back on my
rollers. Will you marry me, Alice? Please?"
"Yes, Max. Whenever you say."
* * * * *
We told nobody where we were going for our two weeks' honeymoon, least
of all Starr. He grumbled for a while, then kicked through with a nice
fat check for a wedding present, along with a bottle of good champagne.
We hopped in a rented jallopy and headed north along the river.
There was a pale round moon overhead and as we got out of the city and
night came on it brightened and made a glowing path on the water. After
while we left the main road and headed into the Catskills. At last we
dipped down into a deep little glen where there was a cosy two-room
cabin I'd often rented before when I had a tough writing assignment
that demanded absolute solitude.
There was no one within miles.
We unloaded the car like a couple of kids. I had practically bought out
a delicatessen. Then Alice started fussing around the cabin, putting
away my fishing tackle and hanging up some curtains and pictures she
had picked up at Woolworth's. I kept on pinching myself to believe she
had really married me and marveling how every little thing she did
suited me perfectly.
"Hungry, darling?"
"You said it!" I made a tentative bite at her ear, grinning, but she
eluded me teasingly.
I uncorked the champagne, managed to spill my first glass, then decided
I was too hungry to bother with it now. We ate cold chicken and all
kinds of fixings. Outside the night lay deep and warm. The moon
shimmered on the evergreens.