Louis County! Suddenly all the faces she could
conjure began to form staring circles around her--the Visigoths. Minnie
Dupree. Ida Blair. Auchinloss. Phonzie. Phonzie!
She decided to walk fast and long and ran downstairs out into the little
areaway that ran like an alley from stage entrance to sidewalk. A newly
installed nickelodeon, adjoining, was already lighted, throwing out a
hard white shine and tinned music at the instance of five cents in the
slot. In the glaring pallor Bruce Visigoth was suddenly at her side, his
felt hat bunched up in his hand and his hair wet-looking, as if drenched
with perspiration.
"I couldn't let you go without apologizing, Mrs. Penny."
She smiled with lips that would pull to the nervous impulse to cry.
"The idea!" she said, feeling the words tawdry and provincial as they
came.
"It was my fault for permitting it to happen in the presence of a third
party--you especially."
"Those things cannot always be avoided," again biting down into her
tongue for its banality.
"Will you forget it as if it had never occurred?"
She turned her gaze, that could be so singularly clear, full upon him.
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