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She was one of the guests at a theater party given by Nicky Overton II. The North Shore Overtons. Lake Forest. They came in late, and occupied the entire third row at the opening performance of Believe Me! And Ethel was Nicky's partner. She was glowing like a rose.
Frances listened and thought: "What children what babies they are, after all." If only this minute could be stretched out farther. "I mustn't," Nicky said. "I should spend hours in dalliance; and if a shell got him it would ruin my morale." Timmy, unhooked from Nicky's shoulder, lay limp in his arms. He lay on his back, in ecstasy, his legs apart, showing the soft, cream-white fur of his stomach.
For she thought, "Because Nicky's a fool, I needn't be one." Drayton came over the same evening after he had got the letter. He shouted with laughter. "Nicky," he said, "you filthy rotter, why on earth didn't you tell me?... It was Nickyish of you.... What if I did think of it first? I should have had to come to you for the details.
"Hullo, naybour!" he shouted, perceiving Nicky-Nan. "Well, now, I count this real friendly of ye, to come an' give me the send-off." And indeed Nicky's presence seemed to be a sensible relief to him. "Haven't ate all the eggs, I hope?
Jerry had dropped off to sleep with his jaws closing drowsily on Nicky's arm. When it moved his hind legs kicked at it and tore. "He's dreaming when he does that," said Nicky. "He thinks he's a panther and I'm buffaloes." Mr. Parsons laughed at him. "Nicky and his cat!" he said. Nicky didn't care. Mr. Parsons was always ragging him. The tutor preferred dogs himself.
He had locked the door of the workshop a year ago, after Nicky's death, and had not opened it again until to-day. This afternoon in the orchard he had seen that the props of the old apple-tree were broken and he had thought that he would like to make new ones, and the wood was in the workshop. Everything in there was as it had been when Nicky finished with his Moving Fortress.
Drayton's forecast was correct; Nicky's brother Michael had not been removed from Nicky's College eight months before letters of apology and restitution came. But both apology and restitution came too late. For by that time Nicky had married Desmond. After Nicholas, Veronica; and after Veronica, Michael.
"Men going out thousands and thousands and thousands to be cut about and blown to bits, and their women safe at home, snuffling and sentimentalizing "Lying lying lying." "Who wouldn't? Who wouldn't tell one big, thumping, sacred lie, if it sends them off happy?" "But we're not lying. It's the most real thing that ever happened to us. I'm glad Nicky's going. I shall be glad all my life."
He would never have drawn attention to himself as Nicky constantly did; he would not have dared his self-conscious diffidence would not have let him. He had had fits of losing his head, but more quietly, often in his imagination alone. He did not see that the self-consciousness of childhood was at the bottom of both his youthful reserve and Nicky's ebullitions.
And for that they thanked the blessed common sense and sanity of Captain Drayton. And yet Anthony's idea was wrecked by "Booster's" wife. It had come too late. Anthony had overlooked the fact that his son had seventeen hours' start of him. He was unaware of the existence of Nicky's own idea; and he had not allowed for the stiff logic of his position. When he drove down in his car to St.