CHARLES NEWMAN
''I'm sorry, " she said, "but I've other plans. "
"Of course . I just thought .. . "
573
"Why don't you give me your card, though? Perhaps I'll be
free tomorrow. ' ,
Fitz said something into his lapels as he fumbled for his wallet.
His face was quite red, and he handed his credentials over, and
Corinne was relieved as the cab began to rev.
"Bye, Fitz."
He nodded rather too fast and hurriedly entered the St. Regis
without overseeing his baggage.
"Hellew, Mrs . Huff," the Plaza's deskman greeted her. "Good
to have you in the city again ."
"I think I've got the flu, Jan," Corinne said as she signed in,
putting "Buyer" under "Profession."
"There's a lot of it around , surely ," Jan said , "but you look
quite well all the same ." She winked at him and smiled the bellboy
into a trot.
Up in the suite, Corinne found that her bag had somehow pre–
ceded her, and the maid had already unpacked her swatches . They
lay on the bed, a pointlessly organized melange of hue and texture,
those samples of which she was to locate carloads .
"The sweet n' stupid is coming back into fashion," Corinne
muttered and then fell backwards onto her products. This cold will
do me in yet, was all she could think.
She was in the tub when Geoff rang . "Same old 427, honey.
C'mon up. I' llieave the door ajar."
She slipped and very nearly killed herself getting back into the
tub .
Geoff soon emerged from the mirrored door , a ftfth of Dewar's
White label in hand , and bending over from the waist , kissed the
dark and massy islet rising from the water.
Geoff was a buyer for the same chain as Corinne, and they had
met on a flight to Phoenix four years ago . They had become abso–
lutely comfortable with one another. Corinne once told him that they
ftt as a mountain pine to a boulder, which Geoff liked, though he
didn ' t know who was rock and who was tree . He carried her from the
