"He's shy," Lucy defended unsurely in the kitchen, "and he's nice even if he does seem stupid. He thinks you're against him because he's not a big talker."
"I was only trying to make conversation, find out what he is interested in—besides you. After all, I can't just sit and stare, but I suppose I did talk too much. From now on I'll be careful."
"We'd better get back before he becomes sulkier. Let me go first."
Lucy sighed. I suppose, she mused, I should have known he doesn't fit in with Vida. The only thing I thought of was how sweet he was to me and how I don't have to think of anything when I'm with him. Love, art, nothing. Just a big kid. Like a sleeping pill. But I must admit that tonight, after not seeing him for a week, being with him is depressing. There's nobody home there.
She found him sitting on a straight chair, sulking.
"Herbert, put a record on the victrola, and I'll give you and Vida a lesson in a new step," she ordered brightly.
"Say please," he said.
She looked at him with a pregnant smile. "Be good to me. Look how good I am to you."
He swallowed gin from his pocket flask, then took her in his arms. They danced only a few steps before she pushed him away to show them the jazz steps she was working on for a number.
"My teacher says I learn jazz quicker than any pupil he ever had," she boasted, and made them line up for a lesson.
"You're both too slow for me," she said after several tries and danced alone as though she were alone.
Herbert finished the gin in his flask and reeled over, trying to take her in his arms. "Are we gonna stick around here all night?" he whined, overturning a bottle as he lurched.
"You're drunk. Go lie down on that couch," Lucy ordered, pointing her finger.
He obeyed like a trained puppy, Vida thought, and turned away because Lucy was looking apologetically at her.
"He's really a nice boy," Lucy whispered uneasily. "Look, he's sound asleep already."
"I'm sleepy, too, and I'm going to bed," Vida said, unable to keep up the illusion of gaiety. What was Lucy thinking of to mess around with such an imbecile? She went abruptly to the bedroom.
Lucy followed. "He's such a nice kid. I guess he can't take much liquor. But he's nice. You see, the one thing I want is to stay in love
