sides, I don't want to go so far from New York. Don't you think I'm right?"
"If he wants you now, he'll want you even more a year from now."
"Well, at last I've got star billing. Some people have to wait much longer. It's funny, but I feel the same except when I see the difference it makes—I mean, how people treat you. I don't even feel anything when I see my name in lights."
"Perhaps because it all happened so fast. Has Hugh been around?"
"Sure. He carried on. I thought I'd be afraid to see him—but do you know what?—he was the scared one. Yes, everybody has shown up. I felt sort of sorry for Herbert so I let him take me to the Chennonceaux. That poor boy couldn't afford it so I slipped some money in his pocket and said, 'This has to be my treat, Herbert, for putting you out in the cold New Year's Eve.'" A rueful smile pulled down the corners of her mouth. "Anyhow, he's engaged to a girl in Ohio and I hope he'll be very happy. But the Chennonceaux isn't the same since Piselli was shot. Marcoudi is too gangstery to run a place in style. But all the night places are getting wilder. Maybe it's that I don't enjoy going out any more."
"Probably because you're tired."
"I didn't want to say anything to you until I decided. Beman wants me to go to Paris with him for a week. He's going to look at a new play. Now that he knows the show's a hit he thinks I should get out of the heat for a few weeks and open fresh Labor Day. He thinks it would be good publicity to say I'd gone to Paris for a new wardrobe."
"That would be wonderful. I had a note from Vermillion last week—I forgot to tell you."
She didn't forget, she didn't want to tell me. It slipped out accidentally, Lucy thought, and sighed. "How is he?" she asked, trying to sound uninterested.
"He said how happy he was to read of your success and he sent me Simone's theatre program. Hal is playing for her," Vida recounted, hoping Lucy would not guess that his letter was one in response to hers, she having used Lucy's success as an excuse to write to him.
"Is he with Simone again?"
"He didn't say."
They sat moodily, gazing unseeingly at the heat-quivering city. "I'd like to go," Lucy said slowly, "but in a way I can't make up my mind because if I do go I must tell Nino one way or another.
