CHAPTER 33

"When they do get married," continued Catherine, "they're going west to live until it blows over." 

"It would be more discreet to go to Europe." 

"Oh, do you like Europe?" she asked with surprise. "I just got back from Monte Carlo." 

"Really?" 

"Just last year. I went there with another girl." 

"Stay long?" 

"No, we just went to Monte Carlo and back. We traveled via Marseilles. We had over twelve hundred dollars when we started, but we got ripped off in two days in the private rooms. We had a terrible time getting back, I can tell you. God, how I hated that place!" 

The late afternoon sky glowed in the window for a moment like the blue honey of the Mediterranean—then Mrs. McKee's shrill voice called me back into the room. 

"I almost made a mistake too," she declared vigorously. "I almost married a little man who'd been pursuing me for years. I knew he was beneath me. Everyone kept saying, 'Lucille, that man's way beneath you!' But if I hadn't met Chester, he would have surely gotten me." 

"Yes, but listen," said Sophie, nodding, "at least you didn't marry him." 

"I know I didn't." 

"Well, I married him," said Sophie, ambiguously. "And that's the difference between your case and mine." 

"Why did you, Sophie?" demanded Catherine. "Nobody forced you to." 

Sophie considered. 

"I married him because I thought he was a gentleman," she said finally. "I thought he had some class, but he wasn't even fit to lick my shoe." 

"You were crazy about him for a while," said Catherine. 

"Crazy about him!" cried Sophie incredulously. "Who said I was crazy about him? I was never any more crazy about him than I was about that