"After I shook Clive--Polly went on to Nita's bridge
party, because she couldn't throw her down at the last minute--I
wandered around till I came to the Railroad Men's Hotel, down on State
Street, you know, the other side of the tracks. It's a miserable dump,
but I sort of hankered for a place to hide in that was as miserable and
cheap as I felt--"
"Did you register under your own name?"
"Ashamed of me, Penny?... No, I registered under my first two
names--Ralph Edwards. And the rat-faced, filthy little hotel clerk
turned out to be a bootlegger.... Well, when I woke up about eleven this
morning I give you my word I wasn't sick and headachy, though God knows
I'd drunk enough to put me out for a week.... Penny, I woke up
feeling--well, I can't explain it but to say I felt light and new
and--and clean.... All washed-up! At first I thought my heart was
empty--it felt so free of pain. But as I lay there thanking God that
_that was that_, I found my heart wasn't empty at all. It was brimming
full of love--Gosh, honey! I sound like a Laura Jean Libbey hero, don't
I?... But before I rang you from the lunch room where I ate breakfast I
wrote Nita a special delivery note, telling her it was all off. I had to
be free actually, before I could ask you.
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