“I don’t see why,” Myra said. “She seemed calm enough when she left here.”

“Well, there’s quite a few things you don’t see,” I said. “Like why you should keep Lennie in at night so we wouldn’t have messes like this.”

“Now, don’t you start in on Lennie!”

“I tell you what I’d like to start,” I said. “I’d like to start home with Rose, so maybe we could all get to bed sometime tonight.”

Rose said yes, she really should be going, and she thanked Myra for the dinner and hugged her and kissed her good night. I went on downstairs ahead of her, before I got into another argument, and she came running down after a minute of two and got into the buggy.

“Ugh!” she said, scrubbing at her mouth. “Every time I kiss that old bitch I want to wash out my mouth.”

“You ought to watch that cussing, Rose,” I said. “It’s liable to slip out sometime when you don’t mean it to.”

“Yeah, I guess I should, goddam it,” she said. “It’s Tom’s fault, the dirty son-of-a-bitch, but I’m sure as hell going to do my best to stop it.”

“That’s my girl,” I said. “I can see you ain’t going to have no trouble.”

We were outside of town by now, and Rose moved over in the seat to snuggle up against me. She kissed me on the back of my neck and she put a hand inside my pocket and sort of wiggled it around; and then she kind of moved away a little, and gave me a funny look.

“What’s the matter, Nick?”

“What?” I said. “How’s that, Rose?”

“I said, what’s wrong with you?”

“Why, nothing,” I said. “Course I’m kind of tired and wore out from all the excitement tonight, but there ain’t nothing really wrong.”

She stared at me, not saying anything. She turned around in the seat, facing straight ahead, and we rode in silence for a while. At last she spoke, in a voice so low I could hardly hear it, asking me a question. I went cold all over, and then I said, “For gosh’s sake! What a thing to say! You know Amy Mason ain’t that kind of woman, Rose! Everyone knows she ain’t.”

“What the hell you mean she’s not that kind?” Rose snapped. “You mean she’s too goddam good to go to bed with you, but I’m not?”

“I mean, I just ain’t hardly acquainted with the woman!” I said. “I barely know her to tip my hat to.”

“You were gone long enough tonight to get acquainted!”

“Aw, naw, I wasn’t honey,” I said. “It just seemed like a long time to you, like it did to me. You know. Because we were just waitin’ to get together tonight, and it seemed like a heck of a long wait. Why, honey, I was just itchin’ and achin’ for you from the minute you showed up today.”

“Well . . .” She moved over a little in the seat.