Part 15 (2/2)

”That's certainly true of me,” said Roy. ”It's time I settled down.”

”You took the words out of my mouth.” Mrs. F. again looked away, as was her habit when speaking on a subject that touched a nerve at least with herself.

”Despite your own unhappy experience, you still believe in marriage?”

”I try not to be too self-centered in looking at things,” said she. ”I'll bet you would make a fine father.”

”Really?” He was inordinately pleased.

”You're very manly. I know, there's still some childishness in you, but that's natural enough. For a while there were people who wanted men to be more like women, but that doesn't make any sense.” She blinked. ”Incidentally, the opposite of manliness isn't being effeminate, and it isn't necessarily cowardice. It's disloyalty.”

He had never before seen the moralist in Mrs. Forsythe. Perhaps it was rather that he had never given himself the opportunity to speak with her on matters of fundamental importance.

”You may be overestimating me,” he told her, ”but it's nice to hear.” Loyalty could sometimes be only habitual, but he would not make that point aloud.

She was not yet done with the subject. ”Give me a loyal coward over a disloyal hero.”

”The disloyal hero is devoted to himself, whereas at least the loyal coward does not betray his community.”

”You understand very well.”

”What about women?”

”Women,” said Mrs. F., ”are the community.”

Yet to whom to be loyal? It was a serious problem but not a serious question. His love for Kristin had all but expunged his affection for Sam. But for the principle of friends.h.i.+p, he would not have given the matter a second thought. He had no feeling one way or the other for the husbands of the women with whom he had gone to bed. He felt neither triumph over them nor guilt. They played no part in his side of an affair, unless of course they acted as did Martin Holbrook in the parking lot of The Hedges. Until then, the man had been only a name.

He suddenly ached to be in touch with Kristin, with whom he had had no contact since delivering her to the foot of the Grandy driveway on Sat.u.r.day evening. On parting they had not even made any arrangement to meet again. It did not occur to him at the time that she might have no intention of meeting him again, that he had served his purpose for that hour or so, that she did not reciprocate his love, but had rather been ruled by a temporary physical pa.s.sion, the satisfaction of which on that single occasion would suffice forever.

She had never told him not to phone her at the bank. Nevertheless, doing so would violate the cla.s.sic protocol of illicit liaisons. Roy was a traditionalist, not a rule-breaker; he would take another man's wife to bed but not flout the lesser conventions, just as he would drive a car far in excess of speed limits but always obey stop signs and use turn signals. However, unless he called Kristin at work she would be accessible only on the home phones of which Sam was again in command.

He could not afford to wait for her to call him, having convinced himself, all at once, that she would never do so.

After her tea was brewed, Mrs. Forsythe did not usually return to the lavatory until it was quitting time each day. He could certainly not phone Kristin in her presence.

”I'm going down to see if the guys have put the E-Type back together.” To which a.s.sertion Mrs. F., eyes on monitor screen and fingers at keyboard, made a preoccupied nod.

He carried his cell phone to the lower level but at the bottom did not enter the garage, owing to the din of mechanics at work. At the moment the guys were in the farthest corner. A fire door between him and them m.u.f.fled the noise of the compressed-air wrenches and ballpeen-hammer blows.

He asked the woman who answered the bank's telephone to connect him with Kristin Grandy.

”She's in a meeting. Can you give me your name and number? She'll call back soon as she can.”

”I'm moving around. I better try again. When's a good time?”

”I couldn't say. She's awfully busy. Better pick a time when you're going to be in one place for a while, and let her return your call.”

”I'll get back to you.”

As Roy stepped into the office Mrs. Forsythe was saying, ”Just a moment. Here he is now.” She pointed toward the phone on his desk.

”Who is it?” he asked in annoyance. She knew he disliked taking business calls without preparation.

”You'll want to talk to her,” said Mrs. F. ”She's interested in that old Elvis of yours.”

”The Alvis,” he said, and not for the first time. He had almost given up correcting her defiant misp.r.o.nunciation of the German sports car name as ”Porsh,” because, as she had pointed out, the same was used on television by every s...o...b..z celebrity who owned one.

When he answered his desk phone, it was Kristin's voice that said, ”Mr. Courtright?”

”Yes.”

”Could I look at the car after six today?”

”By all means.”

”Would that be convenient?”

”That will be fine.”

”See you then.”

”Thank you.”

”That didn't take long,” Mrs. Forsythe said. ”Short and, I hope, sweet.”

”She wants to take a test drive.”

”Say when?”

”Maybe tomorrow.”

”I really prefer specific appointments,” said Mrs. F., wrinkling her nose. ”But at least that woman phoned on business. You got another call during the few minutes you were downstairs. Somebody named Mich.e.l.le. She didn't say anything about cars.”

”I'm seeing her socially,” said Roy. ”She may be a bit young for me-she's just finis.h.i.+ng college-but she's single. She's a very level-headed young woman. She might make a fine wife and mother, but I want to know her better.”

Mrs. Forsythe was beaming at him. ”I've never given up hope on you, Roy. Maybe you're finally on the right track. Now get back to your Mich.e.l.le. She sounded awfully anxious.”

He actually pretended to comply, dialing his home phone and listening to himself on the answering machine. ”I'll catch her later,” he told Mrs. F. ”She was probably calling between cla.s.ses.”

Mrs. Forsythe went home at five, reminding him not to forget about Mich.e.l.le, the idea of whom apparently pleased her.

”'Mich.e.l.le, Ma Belle' has always been one of my favorite songs. I won't tell you how old I was when it first came out.”

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