But there’d be times when we were supposed to see each other that he’d call and say, “Camille, I can’t come for you; you can’t meet me. I can’t see you tonight. I have to finish something.” Of course, I’d wonder what was so special and why he seemed so hard. I knew he loved me; I knew I wasn’t just fooling myself about that. And he knew I loved him. But still there were those times and the strange tone he’d get in his voice, faraway and evasive and short. He wouldn’t even let me come and sit with him.

You can guess what I’d think: it was another girl, and I’d get sad and convince myself, even though I knew better, that he was just playing with me. But really, way down deep that wasn’t it at all. It started to come out a little when I met his father.

One Sunday he picked me up for a ride and we started north up toward Sutton. He didn’t say very much; he was thinking seriously about something. When we got to the Square in Sutton, instead of going straight he turned left, and before I realized I should have been a little nervous, I was standing in front of his father, Demetrius, who was a thin, hard-looking man with white hair. David went for some drinks. Mister Willson looked at me for a long time. “You love him, don’t you?” he said.

“Yes, sir.”

“He loves you too. Apt to want to marry you soon. You want to marry him?”

“Yes, Mister Willson,” I answered.

“That’s fine with me. But you got to know what you’re getting into. You won’t ever be able to leave him. He’ll need you one of these days, more than you imagine he does. He’s bit off a good deal more than he can chew. He doesn’t know I really know about it. But I do.” David came then, and Mister Willson stopped, but I don’t think he would have said any more anyway.

I don’t know if what David’s father said made me feel any better about those nights David acted so strange; I don’t know if what anyone said would’ve made any real difference in how I felt about him, because I was very much in love with him, and if someone had told me something bad about him, I wouldn’t have believed it, and if someone had told me something good, I would’ve felt that of course he was wonderful.