The bride wore black Read Online Free PDF

she was after?"
    "She wasn't out to clean the apartment, that's a cinch, because she was willing to pay a hundred dollars just for the privilege of getting in here, and anyone who can get a hundred dollars' worth out of this place is a magician."
    Corey nodded judicious agreement on that point.
    Bliss stood up. "Let's go." He smiled nervously. "I like everything about marriage except the functions leading up to it such as tonight's."
    "The part I like best," said Corey, "is not having it happen in the first place."
    TTiey were out in the public hall waiting for the self-service car when a thin, querulous ringing piped up behind a closed door somewhere nearby.
    Bliss cocked an experienced ear. "Key of G flat. That's mine. I'd better hop in and take it a minute; it may be Marge."
    He went back to the door, fumbled in his pocket for his key, dropped it, had to stoop to get it. Corey stuck his foot out to hold the car up for them. "Hurry up

    before somebody gets it away from us," he urged.
    Bliss pitched the door open. The thin wail rose to a full-toned peal, then perversely stopped short and didn't resume. He backed out again, pulled the door shut after him. "Too late, they've quit trying."
    Riding down in the elevator, Corey suggested, "Maybe it was that same mystery dame again."
    "If it was," Bliss grunted, "whatever it is she wants, she sure wants bad."
    Alone there with Marge, in a little alcove away from the rest of the party, he scratched the back of his neck in pretended perplexity. "Let's see now, how does this go? Tve seen enough movies, I ought to have the hang of it. Well, let's give it the old shut-eye treatment, that's the safest. Shut your eyes and stick out your finger."
    She promptly hooked her thumb toward him.
    He slapped it out of the way. "Not that one. Help a fellow out. I'm so nervous I could "
    "Oh, wrong finger? You should be more specific. How'd I know but what you wanted to bite it or something?"
    And then the ring. Their heads drew together, looking down at it; they made a love knot of their four hands. They made nonsensical purrings and cooings and other noises that to them were probably language. Suddenly both became aware of eyes regarding them steadfastly, and they turned their heads in unison toward the doorway. A girl was outlined in it, as motionless as though she had taken root in the floor.
    She was in tiered, wide-spreading black, the creamy whiteness of her shoulders rising out of it without any interrupting straps. A gossamer black wimple twinkling with jet was drawn over hair so incredibly yellow it seemed to have been powdered with cornmeal.
    A dimple of sympathy or possibly derision at the

    comer of her mouth had disappeared before they could confirm it. "Pardon me," she said quietly, and moved on.
    "What a striking girl!" Marjorie exclaimed involuntarily, continuing to stare at the empty doorway as though hypnotized.
    "Who is she?"
    "I don't know. I think I remember her coming in along with Fred Sterling and his party, but if I was introduced, it didn't take."
    They looked down at the ring once more. But the spell had been broken, their mood was gone, they couldn't seem to get it back. The room didn't feel quite as warm as it had. As though that look from the doorway had chilled it.
    She shivered, said, "Come on, let's get back to the others."
    The party was in the homestretch now, and they were dancing, he and she. Those little sketchy turns and fake half steps that are just an excuse to cover up a private conversation.
    He said, "Well, let's take the apartment on Eighty-fourth Street, then. After all, if he'll give it to us for five dollars less a month like he said. . . . And with the furniture they're going to give us, we can fix it up to look like something "
    She said, "That girl in black can't take her eyes off you. Every time I look over there she's staring at you for all she's worth. If it was any night but tonight, I might begin to get worried."
    He turned his head. "She