my other clothes in the suitcases. If anyone phones, say I'm not here," she said cryptically.
"You look marvelous," Vida admired.
"Wait until you see me later," she said and went to bathe while Vida prepared breakfast.
"Look," she said a half hour later, holding open her robe. She was as white as vanilla ice cream.
"I washed it off. It's a new liquid makeup. I never got out in the sun. You stay up all night down there. From now on though I'm going to lead a quiet life, disciplined."
Vida smiled at Lucy's adoption of the word reminiscent of Pergov but let it pass to tell her own news.
Lucy was astonished. "I don't understand. I think of you interested only in books and you land in a place like Hector's. Why do you waste your time there?"
"It's a secret, riddle it out for yourself."
"I'll bet there's a man in it."
"Oh Lucy, for heaven's sake, what a single-track mind."
"Well, I don't get it."
"There's a big bruise on your leg."
Lucy frowned, and then laughed nervously. "I must have bumped it on a suitcase on the train." She wrapped the robe around her and walked about smoking. "I met a man in Florida I like very much. He's very good for me, but he's very jealous. I don't want him to know I'm here just yet because I'm tired. I want a good sleep."
"Nat Merriman?"
Lucy looked at her wide-eyed. "Where did you hear about Nat? From Figente, I'll bet. No, it isn't Nat. He's another Lyle, but older. This man I like is English. He's crazy about flying. He was always taking me up in a friend's plane and if I showed I was scared he'd loop the loop."
"He must be a sadist."
"He says I'm a coward because I have no discipline. He's being transferred from the Palm Beach office of an English steamship company to be near me. His name is Hugh Wickham. He looks like the Prince of Wales but with curly hair."
This seemed to Vida a meager description as, except for the Broadway and sporting types who preferred the snappy Jimmy Walker style, most young men strove to resemble the royal model.
"I think he's flying up now, but I don't want him to know I'm
