“Ah,” she said, and he thought he could detect something faintly cold in her tone. She’d seen him dancing with Alma last night. He’d been fawning over her, right out in the open, like a fool. She asked again how Effie was feeling, and Effie said she’d be fit for public by evening, as long as they weren’t doing anything too exciting. Clara rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be a slow one tonight. Maxie overextended himself—typical. He’s still asleep, if you can believe it. I wish we’d left all those people where we found them last night. A low-rent crowd if I ever saw one.”

“I heard the band came,” Effie said. “And there was singing.”

“You were amazing at the piano,” Henry put in. “You should have seen her, Eff. She was the leader of the band.”

Clara seemed pleased at that, as he’d hoped, and smiled warmly at him. “The musicians were all right,” she said, “but the girls, Jesus. The most boring pack of hangers-on I ever met. I shooed the one named Maggie out of the backyard this morning. She was asleep on the lawn.”

“No!” Effie said, leaning forward, eager to hear more, and as Clara went on, about the girls, about “those awful Coast Guard boys,” Henry’s nerves calmed. She said nothing about him, or gave him any kind of suspicious look. Of course Alma wouldn’t have said anything. And Clara had been absorbed in her own drama. He remembered how the trumpet player had been kissing her breasts.

“Anyway,” she said, “assuming Maxie can rouse himself, we were planning to go to this little place in town that’s open on the weekends. The Salty Dog? It’s a bit of a joint, but the food’s good, and our kitchen’s depleted. Want to come? It’ll just be us.”

Effie said it sounded good to her, and looked at Henry.

“Sure,” he said. “Of course.”

Maybe she wouldn’t come along. Maybe, knowing Henry would be there, she’d do what she usually did, and slip off somewhere by herself.

But at some point, if they were staying at Clara’s, he would have to see her. And maybe, he thought, as he and Effie walked to the Western Union office to call their families, it wouldn’t be so bad.

It was another fine day, sunny and warm, and since it was Saturday, the town wasn’t completely empty. An old couple strolled ahead of them on the promenade. Down on the beach, a family was having a picnic. He and Effie held hands.