her blue eyes widened, then the little laughter-wrinkles formed around them. "you dear old mid-victorian!" she broke in. "no, he ain't done wrong by our nell, and i'm not asking you to take your shotgun down and force him to make me an honest woman. suppose we start at the beginning: then we'll get things straight.
"you assisted at both our débuts, i've been told; you've known ned and me since we were a second old apiece, haven't you?"
i nodded.
"know we've always been crazy about each other, too; in grammar school, high school and college, don't you?"
"yes," i agreed.
"all right. we've been engaged ever since our freshman year at beaver. ned just had his frat pin long enough to pin it on my shoulder-strap at the first freshman dance. everything was set for us to stand up in the chancel and say 'i do' this june; then ned's company sent him to new orleans last december." she paused, drew deeply at her cigarette, crushed its fire out in an ash-tray, and set a fresh one glowing.
"that started it. while he was down there it seemed that he got playful. mixed up with some glamorous creole gal." once more she lapsed into silence and i could see the heartbreak showing through the armor of her flippant manner.
"you mean he fell in love——"
"i certainly do not! if he had, i'd have handed back his ring and said 'bless you, me children', even if i had to bite my heart in two to do it; but this is no case of a new love crowding out the old. ned still loves me; never stopped loving me. that's what makes it all seem crazy as a hashish-eater's dream. he was on the loose in new orleans, doing the town with a crowd of local boys, and prob'bly had too many ramos fizzes. then he barged into this creole dame's place, and——" she broke off with a gallant effort at a smile. "i guess young fellows aren't so different nowadays than they were when you were growing up, sir. only today we don't believe in sprinkling perfume in the family cesspool. ned cheated, that's the bald truth of it; he didn't stop loving me, and he hasn't stopped now, but i wasn't there and that other girl was, and there were no conventions to be recognized. now he's fairly melting with remorse, says he's not worthy of me—wants to break off our engagement, while he spends a lifetime doing penance for a moment's folly."
"but good heavens," i expostulated, "if you're willing to forgive——"
"you're telling me!" she answered bitterly. "we've been over it a hundred times. this isn't 1892; even nice girls know the facts of life today, and while i'm no more anxious than the next one to put through a deal in shopworn goods, i still love ned, and i don't intend to let a single indiscretion rob us of our happiness. i——" the hard exterior veneer of modernism melted from her like an autumn ice-glaze melting in the warm october sun, and the tears coursed down her cheeks, cutting little valleys in her carefully-applied make-up. "he's my man, doctor," she sobbed bitterly. "i've loved him since we made mud-pies together; i'm hungry, thirsty for him. he's everything to me, and if he follows out this fool renunciation he seems set on, it'll kill me!"
de grandin tweaked a waxed mustache-end thoughtfully. "you exemplify the practicality of woman, mademoiselle; i applaud your sound, hard common sense," he told her. "bring this silly young romantic foolish one to me. i will tell him——"
"but he won't come," i interrupted. "i know these hard-minded young asses. when a lad is set on being stubborn——"
"will you go to work on him if i can get him here?" interjected nella.
"of a certitude, mademoiselle."
"you won't think me forward or unmaidenly?"
"this is a medical consultation, mademoiselle."
"all right; be in the office this time tomorrow night. i'll have my wandering boy friend here if i have to bring him in an ambulance."
