AN
INSIDE STORY
271
"What else is there?" said Paddles, in a smirking tone but with
a deadpan face.
"I don't expect
you
to understand that there
is
something
higher in life," said Emma, pained and disdainful.
"Now look, Emma," said Paddles patiently, "don't you think
you let yourself in for this? You could have told the ensign that
you were going to dinner with him just for the conversation, and
then you would have had no trouble."
Emma felt caught in the toils of this reasonable suggestion. She
looked bemused .as if such a course had not occurred to her, but
perhaps should have occurred to her.
"I am engaged to be married," she said, striving to defend
herself also by adopting the tone of respectability. "My fiance is
quartermaster on the
Lafayette.
His leave was taken away because
of me. He stayed up all night with me in the hotel and did not get
back to the ship because he fell asleep. He kept arguing with me
all night, he said,
If
you truly love me, you will let me make love
to you. And I said,
If
you truly
loved me, you would not ask me to."
"The guy would be better off dead," said Gabriel, sullenly.
"Is that so!" said Emma, enraged. "Well I will have you know
that that's not love. Of course, I don't expect
you
to understand
that.»
"Nowadays the f--ing begins with the engagement," said
Paddles pleasantly. He had returned again after a spell with the
band.
"A girl is bound to say yes some time," said Gabriel, "you
just can't say no all the time."
"I can say no all the time," said Emma.
"I bet you can, at that," said Gabriel severely.
"Why don't you drop dead," said Emma, enraged all over
again.
"You may be right, at that," said Gabriel. His tone was sud–
denly conciliatory. He did not want a scene. He did not like scenes.
Besides, the Greek would be annoyed. "It may be best to sleep
alone. That's the only sure way of keeping out of trouble." He
spoke pensively, moved by memory.
"Oh no," said Paddles, "not to sleep alone: That
can)t
be the
best thing."
