AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lev was inspired. In two strides he crossed to where Olga was sitting. With a swift motion he snatched the lighted cigarette from between her fingers.
"Hey!" she protested.
Gus Dewar frowned and said: "What the devil are you up to?"
Lev turned away, putting the cigarette between his lips. A moment later Vyalov spotted him. "What are you doing here?" he said crossly. "Get my car out. "
"Yes, sir," said Lev.
"And put out that damned cigarette when you're talking to me. "
Lev pinched out the coal and put the butt in his pocket. "Sorry, Mr. Vyalov, sir, I forgot myself. "
"Don't let it happen again. "
"Yes, sir. "
"Now clear off. "
Lev hurried away, then looked back over his shoulder. The young men had jumped to their feet, and Vyalov was jovially shaking hands all round. Olga, looking guilty, was introducing her friends. She had almost been caught. She met Lev's eye and shot him a grateful look.
Lev winked at her and walked on.
{IV}
Ursula Dewar's drawing room contained a few ornaments, all precious in different ways: a marble head by Elie Nadelman, a first edition of the Geneva Bible, a single rose in a cut-glass vase, and a framed photograph of her grandfather, who had opened one of the first department stores in America. When Gus came into the room at six o'clock she was sitting in a silk evening dress, reading a new novel called The Good Soldier.
"How's the book?" he asked her.
"It is extraordinarily good, although I hear, paradoxically, that the author is a frightful cad. "
He mixed an old-fashioned for her, the way she liked it, with bitters but no sugar. He felt nervous. At my age I shouldn't be afraid of my mother, he thought. But she could be scathing. He handed her the drink.
"Thank you," she said. "Are you enjoying your summer break?"
"Very much. "
"I was afraid that by now you'd be itching to get back to the excitement of Washington and the White House. "
Gus had expected that, too; but the holiday had brought unexpected pleasures. "I'll return as soon as the president does, but meanwhile I'm having a great time. "
"Is Woodrow going to declare war on Germany, do you think?"
"I hope not. The Germans are willing to back down, but they want Americans to stop selling arms to the Allies. "
"And will we stop?" Ursula was of German ancestry, as were some half the population of Buffalo, but when she said "we" she meant America.
"Absolutely not. Our factories are making too much money from British orders. "
"Is it a deadlock, then?"
"Not yet. We're still dancing around one another. Meanwhile, as if to remind us of the pressures on neutral countries, Italy has joined the Allies. "
"Will that make any difference?"
"Not enough. " Gus took a deep breath. "I played tennis at the Vyalovs' place this afternoon," he said. His voice did not sound as casual as he had hoped.
"Did you win, dear?"
