The Door Between Read Online Free PDF Page B

all right. Damn you, Eva, I’ll marry you the minute old John comes home!”
    “Oh, Dick,” whispered Eva, for her throat was too full. She came around the desk and dropped tiredly into his lap, as if after a great struggle …
    After a while Eva kissed Richard’s handsome nose on the tip, slapped his hand, wriggled off his lap. “Stop that! I’m going right down to Washington Square and see Karen.”
    “Give me a break, will you?” he growled. “You can see Karen any time.”
    “No. I’ve been neglecting her dreadfully and besides –”
    “Me, too,” he grumbled, pressing a button on his desk. His nurse came in. “No more patients to-day, Miss Harrigan.” As the nurse went out he said: “Now come here.”
    “No!”
    “Do you want me to make a fool of myself and chase you all around the office?”
    “Oh, Dickie darling, please,” said Eva, busily powdering her nose. “I’ve got to see Karen.”
    “Why all this love for Karen?”
    “Let me go! I want to tell her, you fool. I’ve got to tell somebody .”
    “Then I guess I’ll take a nap,” he said disconsolately. “I know you when your chin sticks out! I was up all night holding Mrs Maarten’s hand and convincing her having a baby was like having a tooth pulled.”
    “Oh, you poor thing,” crooned Eva, kissing him again. “She’s very pretty, isn’t she? Have a nice nap.”
    “Will I see you to-night? After all, we ought to celebrate –”
    “Dick! Don’t! Dick – Yes,” said Eva, and fled.
    Eva emerged into the Park Avenue sunshine looking exactly like a girl who has just been well-kissed and the date of her marriage set. She was so full of happiness that the doorman grinned and the taxicab driver threw away his toothpick to open the door for her.
    She gave Karen’s address and leaned back in the cab, closing her eyes. So here it was at last. Marriage – just around the corner. Not any old marriage, but marriage to Richard. There would be a lot of gossip, of course – how she had thrown herself at him and practically hogtied him; but let them talk. They were all envious. And the more envious they were, she thought blissfully, the happier she would be. It was awful thinking such a thing, but she wanted every woman in the world to be jealous of her. She felt a little stifled under her jacket. Mrs Richard Barr Scott … It sounded nice. It did sound nice.
    When the cab stopped in front of Karen’s Eva got out and paid the man off and paused on the stoop to look over the Square. The park was brilliant in the four o’clock sunshine, brilliant and beautiful with its geometrical grasses and the fountain and the nurses wheeling baby carriages. Watching the carriages, Eva felt herself flush; she had been thinking of babies recently rather more than was decent. And then she thought that if she and Richard could not live in Westchester or Long Island after they were married, nothing would be sweeter than to live in a house like Karen’s. It was quite the nicest house she knew in New York. With a really livable series of bedrooms – the drapes –
    She rang the bell.
    Their own place in the East Sixties was just an apartment. Despite all the fussing Eva had lavished on it, it had never been anything but an apartment. But Dr. MacClure had refused to move farther than a whistle’s blast from his Cancer Foundation, and it was true that a whole house would have been a useless luxury, since Eva was never at home and the doctor, of course, virtually lived in his laboratory. The doctor … For a secret moment Eva was gladder than she had ever been that Karen and Dr. MacClure would some time be married. She felt a little guilty, thinking of going away and leaving him all alone in that awful apartment. Perhaps they could –
    A strange maid opened the door.
    Eva was surprised. But she went through the vestibule and asked: “Is Miss Leith home?” – a silly question, but one you always asked, somehow.
    “Yes, Miss. Who’s calling?” The maid