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Page 64
Awakening early, she inaugurated a habit of getting up at once, instead of
lolling in bed, and breakfasting there, and reading her mail, as had been
her wont before going West. Then she went over business matters with her
aunt, called on her lawyer and banker, took lunch with Rose Maynard, and
spent the afternoon shopping. Strong as she was, the unaccustomed heat and
the hard pavements and the jostle of shoppers and the continual rush of
sensations wore her out so completely that she did not want any dinner. She
talked to her aunt a while, then went to bed.
Next day Carley motored through Central Park, and out of town into
Westchester County, finding some relief from the seemed to look at the
dusty trees and the worn greens without really seeing them. In the
afternoon she called on friends, and had dinner at home with her aunt, and
then went to a theatre. The musical comedy was good, but the almost
unbearable heat and the vitiated air spoiled her enjoyment. That night upon
arriving home at midnight she stepped out of the taxi, and involuntarily,
without thought, looked up to see the stars. But there were no stars. A
murky yellow-tinged blackness hung low over the city. Carley recollected
that stars, and sunrises and sunsets, and untainted air, and silence were
not for city dwellers. She checked any continuation of the thought.
A few days sufficed to swing her into the old life. Many of Carley's
friends had neither the leisure nor the means to go away from the city
during the summer. Some there were who might have afforded that if they had
seen fit to live in less showy apartments, or to dispense with cars. Other
of her best friends were on their summer outings in the Adirondacks. Carley
decided to go with her aunt to Lake Placid about the first of August.
Meanwhile she would keep going and doing.
She had been a week in town before Morrison telephoned her and added his
welcome. Despite the gay gladness of his voice, it irritated her. Really,
she scarcely wanted to see him. But a meeting was inevitable, and besides,
going out with him was in accordance with the plan she had adopted. So she
made an engagement to meet him at the Plaza for dinner. When with slow and
pondering action she hung up the receiver it occurred to her that she
resented the idea of going to the Plaza. She did not dwell on the reason why.
When Carley went into the reception room of the Plaza that night Morrison
was waiting for her--the same slim, fastidious, elegant, sallow-faced
Morrison whose image she had in mind, yet somehow different. He had what
Carley called the New York masculine face, blase and lined, with eyes that
gleamed, yet had no fire. But at sight of her his face lighted up.
"By Jove! but you've come back a peach!" he exclaimed, clasping her
extended hand. "Eleanor told me you looked great. It's worth missing you to
see you like this."
"Thanks, Larry," she replied. "I must look pretty well to win that
compliment from you. And how are you feeling? You don't seem robust for a
golfer and horseman. But then I'm used to husky Westerners."
"Oh, I'm fagged with the daily grind," he said. "I'll be glad to get up in
the mountains next month. Let's go down to dinner."
They descended the spiral stairway to the grillroom, where an orchestra was
playing jazz, and dancers gyrated on a polished floor, and diners in
evening dress looked on over their cigarettes.
"Well, Carley, are you still finicky about the eats?" he queried,
consulting the menu.
"No. But I prefer plain food," she replied.
"Have a cigarette," he said, holding out his silver monogrammed case.
"Thanks, Larry. I--I guess I'll not take up smoking again. You see, while I
was West I got out of the habit."
"Yes, they told me you had changed," he returned. "How about drinking?"
"Why, I thought New York had gone dry!" she said, forcing a laugh.
"Only on the surface. Underneath it's wetter than ever."
"Well, I'll obey the law."
He ordered a rather elaborate dinner, and then turning his attention to
Carley, gave her closer scrutiny. Carley knew then that he had become
acquainted with the fact of her broken engagement. It was a relief not to
need to tell him.
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