Part 3 (2/2)
”But Zoie----” protested Jimmy.
She lifted a small hand, begging him to spare her further questions.
It was apparent that she must explain each aspect of their present difficulty, with as much patience as though Jimmy were in reality only a child. She sank into her chair and then proceeded, with a martyred air.
”You see it was like this,” she said. ”Alfred came into the restaurant just after we had gone out and Henri, the waiter who has taken care of him for years, told him that I had just been in to luncheon with a gentleman.”
Jimmy s.h.i.+fted about on the edge of his chair, ill at ease.
”Now if Alfred had only told me that in the first place,” she continued, ”I'd have known what to say, but he didn't. Oh no, he was as sweet as could be all through breakfast and last night too, and then just as he was leaving this morning, I said something about luncheon and he said, quite casually, 'Where did you have luncheon YESTERDAY, my dear?' So I answered quite carelessly, 'I had none, my love.' Well, I wish you could have seen him. He called me dreadful things. He says I'm the one thing he can't endure.”
”What's that?” questioned Jimmy, wondering how Alfred could confine himself to any ”ONE thing.”
”He says I'm a liar!” shrieked Zoie tearfully.
”Well, aren't you?” asked Jimmy.
”Of course I am,” declared Zoie; ”but why shouldn't I be?” She looked at Jimmy with such an air of self-approval that for the life of him he could find no reason to offer. ”You know how jealous Alfred is,” she continued. ”He makes such a fuss about the slightest thing that I've got out of the habit of EVER telling the TRUTH.” She walked away from Jimmy as though dismissing the entire matter; he s.h.i.+fted his position uneasily; she turned to him again with mock sweetness. ”I suppose YOU told AGGIE all about it?” she said.
Jimmy's round eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped lower. ”I--I--don't believe I did,” he stammered weakly. ”I didn't think of it again.”
”Thank heaven for that!” concluded Zoie with tightly pressed lips. Then she knotted her small white brow in deep thought.
Jimmy regarded her with growing uneasiness. ”What are you up to now?” he asked.
”I don't know yet,” mused Zoie, ”BUT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TELL AGGIE--that's ONE SURE thing.” And she pinned him down with her eyes.
”I certainly will tell her,” a.s.serted Jimmy, with a wag of his very round head. ”Aggie is just the one to get you out of this.”
”She's just the one to make things worse,” said Zoie decidedly. Then seeing Jimmy's hurt look, she continued apologetically: ”Aggie MEANS all right, but she has an absolute mania for mixing up in other people's troubles. And you know how THAT always ends.”
”I never deceived my wife in all my life,” declared Jimmy, with an air of self approval that he was far from feeling.
”Now, Jimmy,” protested Zoie impatiently, ”you aren't going to have moral hydrophobia just when I need your help!”
”I'm not going to lie to Aggie, if that's what you mean,” said Jimmy, endeavouring not to wriggle under Zoie's disapproving gaze.
”Then don't,” answered Zoie sweetly.
Jimmy never feared Zoie more than when she APPEARED to agree with him.
He looked at her now with uneasy distrust.
”Tell her the truth,” urged Zoie.
”I will,” declared Jimmy with an emphatic nod.
”And I'LL DENY IT,” concluded Zoie with an impudent toss of her head.
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