The blue roses on her hat were shaking, and the absurd dog kept jerking
at his leash, sometimes even forcing her to take a step and regain her
balance. Jerome was beginning to feel slightly upset.
“Everybody thinks we’re married,” she babbled, rather disconnectedly,
“and that makes it just about the same as if we were. All you do is light
out, but what about _me_? That’s what _I_ want to know!”
“We talked everything over,” he repeated glumly. “I don’t care to argue
about it any more. It’s only fair I have my chance now.”
But she was piqued, and her lips still pouted; and then, out of the
muddled wretchedness of her heart, she cast up at Jerome the reminder
that if she hadn’t been so honest in the first place he’d be her husband
now, this minute—he couldn’t help himself. “And then,” she ended, in
truly flaming, if somewhat confused triumph, “I guess you’d be a little
more cut up about this divorce business—it wouldn’t look quite so easy to
you, anyhow, as it does this way!”
“But you had to, Lili!” cried Jerome, not a little horrified, for a
moment, despite his worldly poise, at the vista her sordid dreg of
self-revelation opened up. “You _had_ to tell about your marriage....”
They looked at each other rather helplessly, till, her mood softening,
she faltered: “You never used to be so high and mighty with me, Jerry!”
“But great heavens, Lili, you don’t seem to realize what it means to have
two husbands at the same time!”
“How do I know if I’d _be_ having two? How could I be sure? How do I know
where I stand anyhow? How do I know where my husband is, or if I have any
husband by this time any more at all—even one?”
Lili in her pink dress and overloaded hat, with the little dog straining
and pouncing at the end of its leash, seemed really an almost tragic
figure. There was something so petitioning, so frankly primitive about
her outburst.
“You’re just as cosy as an iceburg, Jerry,” she said, even simulating a
small shiver. “You seem to forget all about that night—you know—about
us being together at Hilo, and how you loved me then. Oh, my Gawd!” she
ended in a lamentation of moist bitterness. “It shows you can’t believe
a word a man says to you, and I just think I’ll go and commit suicide!”
After which she seemed to feel almost cheerful.
And then—then something most unexpected happened!
Just as she was saying, with a weak little resigned sigh, that she’d
have to be getting aboard, a dapper man in a check suit came up and
tipped his hat.
Lili brightened amazingly. Her manner grew excited and gracious. She
began beaming.
“Oh, here you are now!” she laughed. “I was looking for you, and waiting
till I didn’t dare wait any longer for fear of missing the boat. I want
to introduce you to Mr. Stewart, an old friend of mine,” she went on
cordially. And now she was beaming on them both. It was a situation!
The newcomer, whose name Jerome didn’t get exactly, shook hands, with
some slight asperity, and began edging up toward Lili in a faintly
proprietary way. All at once Jerome noticed that Lili’s wedding ring
had mysteriously disappeared; and from that time on he grinned without
ceasing until Lili and the new friend she’d picked up and the little
prancing dog had moved off out of sight round the corner. Her friend was
going on to Yokohama too. “On to Yokohama!”
“Can you beat it?” muttered Jerome.
And then, with just one brief sigh, he went about his own affairs.