"No, that ain't the reason," said Dot. "Look at the chance you take. Suppose he didn't marry you?"
"Then I'd marry somebody else and be spared the shame of having to admit that I fooled around with a fellow for two years and didn't have the guts to go further."
"Gee, I never talked to you, Sue, without hearing something I'd never have thought of."
Sue reached for her lipstick with a nonchalant gesture. "When you start cheating on Eddie," she said, "let me know. I'll be able to give you an argument in both directions."
Dot smiled. "I'm not going to cheat on Eddie," she said.
"Well, maybe not." Sue's brow wrinkled thoughtfully. "I remember reading of a case in the newspaper once where a woman was true to her husband for all their married life, but they lived on a farm and there wasn't any one else around."
"Sue! You're terrible."
"Well, maybe," said Sue, "but you know, Dot, I've watched people. You don't. You listen to them. Do you remember Mrs. Barns up on Cypress Avenue? She was getting a tooth filled for damn near a year. You believed her when she complained every day about having to go to the dentist's. Bunk! Doctor Walters was her sweetie. That's why you'd always find her in his office."
"But she said—" began Dot.
"There you are, 'she said.' Hell's bells, Dot, I'm a virgin. I was just kidding you about me and Pat. Believe that and I'll call the ambulance for you. I gotta run along now."
She ran along, and Dot, left alone in her room, wondered if after all Sue wouldn't be happier if she and Pat were respectably married. Later she decided that Sue
