So Little Time Read Free Page B

settled, and then when you least expected it, a question like that would come out of nowhere. He could not imagine why she had selected such a time to ask him.
    â€œWhy, of course I like it,” he said. “Why, Madge, if you hadn’t married me, I’d have been Bohemian.”
    â€œI just wonder sometimes,” she said.
    â€œIf I’ve said anything,” he began, “to make you think—”
    â€œNo,” she said, “I just wonder sometimes, if it’s what you really wanted. Jeff, we have had a good time, haven’t we?”
    â€œLook here,” Jeffrey told her, “we’re just having breakfast, aren’t we? We’re just beginning another day, aren’t we? Don’t talk as though you were going to die.”
    â€œAll our friends,” Madge said, “and the house in the country—I wouldn’t have bought it if you hadn’t wanted it—and the children. They are nice children.”
    â€œLook here,” Jeffrey said, “why do we have to go into this the first thing in the morning? I didn’t say the children weren’t nice—they’re swell. Everything is swell. The house in the country is swell, even the garage.”
    â€œYou wanted the garage,” Madge said.
    â€œI didn’t say I didn’t want it,” Jeffrey told her, “I just told you everything is swell.”
    â€œI just wonder sometimes,” Madge said, “I just wonder what you’d have been like if we hadn’t got married.”
    â€œLook here,” Jeffrey told her, “I don’t see why you bring this up. It’s pretty late in the game to wonder—we’ll be married twenty-one years December.”
    â€œWell, here we are,” Madge said; “I didn’t think you were going to remember.”
    â€œThat’s exactly the point,” Jeffrey told her. “Here we are, and I’m not going to stay here any longer because I’ve got to get dressed and get out. Just remember everything is swell, that is, unless you’re tired of it.”
    â€œNo,” she said, “of course I’m not. It’s everything I’ve wanted.”
    Jeffrey walked around the card table and kissed her, and she clung to him for a moment.
    â€œJeffrey.”
    â€œWhat?” he asked her.
    â€œDon’t worry about the war. You can’t do anything about it.”
    Sometimes when he thought she did not know anything about him, suddenly he found she knew just what he was thinking.
    â€œIt hasn’t been on my mind at all,” he said, but he knew she did not believe him. “Nothing’s on my mind. Wait a minute, if we’re going to Fred’s and Beckie’s, have you read World Assignment ? Wait a minute.” He crossed the room to one of the shelves and pulled out a book. “I haven’t read it, either, but maybe you’d better look at it. Here it is. Walter gave it to me,” and he opened the cover and showed her the flyleaf. “See, he wrote in it. ‘Cheerio, to my old friend Jeff, with very sincere regards, Walter Newcombe.’”
    Jeffrey stood leaning over her shoulder, and she looked up at him.
    â€œWhy, Jeff,” she said, “you never told me that he gave you that book. I thought it had come from the Book-of-the-Month Club. You never tell me anything at all.”
    The elevator boy wore white cotton gloves that wrinkled above his knuckles.
    â€œGood morning, Mr. Wilson,” he said, “it’s a fine morning.”
    â€œYes,” Jeffrey said, “it is a nice morning, isn’t it?”
    â€œIt’s always good weather in October,” the elevator boy said.
    â€œYes,” Jeffrey said, “October is always a fine month.”
    â€œOctober is the best month of the year,” the elevator boy said.
    â€œYes,” Jeffrey said, “that’s so. October is always a good month.”
    The doorman held open the