Jealous Woman Read Online Free PDF Page A

nobility.”
    “In a word, no.”
    “What do you make of her, Mr. Keyes?”
    “Well, who would want this annulment?”
    “Yeah, but what’s blocking the insurance got to do with it?”
    “It’s not so dumb, once you meet the guy. She probably figures that if you take away his chance to look noble, the rest of it’ll be so raw that even he won’t have the gall to go through with it. Ed, he’s a silly guy. She knows him. She’s got her reasons. Of course, if there was somebody around that would plug him for what he’s doing, that would be different. Fortunately, we can eliminate that.”
    “Oh, can we?”
    “Well, you wouldn’t, would you?”
    “What have I got to do with it?”
    “Well, you’re going around with her.”
    “On business, a little.”
    “Like a little necking in front of the hotel?”
    “Says who?”
    “I saw you. ... She was such a pretty girl I stopped at the desk and asked who she was. I think it can be assumed if she’s having hot smackeroos with you, she’s not having them with somebody else. He won’t get shot, in my humble opinion.”
    “This all came after his application was in.”
    “It’s O.K. with me.”
    “I’m kind of stuck on her.”
    “I don’t fall for them as a rule. I’ve got a superstition about it. Somehow, I feel that’s all it would need, for me to fall for one, and here it would come, all ready-made from up yonder, a chapter at a time. Stories are wonderful things—but from the outside looking in, Ed, every time. From the inside looking out, not so good.”
    It crossed my mind, driving out to see one of the Count’s lessons in manners, could I be on the inside of something, looking out, and not know it?
    Keyes had got the company to make it a rule that anything in six figures gets a special check, whether there’s anything questionable or not, so that meant he had to sit around till he got his report from New York. That meant I’d have to entertain him, but there was no help for it, so I rang her and said I’d meet her later. Around five o’clock he rang me at the office, and from the way he stuttered I began to wonder what he wanted. “Listen, Mr. Keyes, is there something else you’d rather do?”
    “Oh, not at all, but—”
    “Spill it.”
    “There’s somebody I’d like to invite.”
    “Hey, hey, hey. And ho, ho, ho. And ha, ha, ha.”
    “Oh, it’s nothing like that. She’s married and rich and wants nothing from me. Just the same, she’s a pretty good looker, and I thought—”
    “Who is she?”
    “Nobody you know. She’s from Bermuda.”
    “If she’s getting it melted, watch out.”
    “No. She’s here on business—cashing chips.”
    “She won’t be rich long.”
    “She can afford it.”
    “She’s all yours.”
    “Couldn’t we invite—your little friend, Ed?”
    “I don’t think she’d go for it.”
    “Ed, can I say something?”
    “Shoot!”
    “Personal?”
    “O.K.”
    “Watch out.”
    “Well, the same to you and many of them.”
    “Don’t worry about me, my young friend. But you, you could be starting something you can’t stop.”
    That night I took Jane over to Carson, and she loved it, because it’s the tiniest state capital in the world, and she said it was like tiptoeing around in some doll’s house. After we had dinner at the Arlington we started up the Bridgeport Road, because over the California line, in the high country where there’s real forest, you often see deer and other big game, and she thought she would like that. She was feeling good, and before long I found out why. “I think my difficulty’s near an end. I think my problem is going to be solved, and soon. I think it’ll all get straightened out before I, or Tom, complete our six weeks’ period of residence.”
    “Gee, that’s swell.”
    “In town has arrived a lady.”
    “You interest me strangely.”
    “The present wife of my former husband.”
    “To get Tom to lay off the annulment?”
    “I can imagine no other