“Your answers have me ready to throw up, Joe. You should hear your tone. I thought that we had a few things settled. More, but I guess not.”

“Karen, it’s after midnight—”

“Where was she? Where was she when the phone was ringing?”

“In the bathroom, for all I know. I don’t know, I was in bed.”

“Where is she now? Where are you?”

“Downstairs. I don’t know where she is. Calm down, will you please?”

“The second time you called today you cursed out my secretary. I didn’t hear that from her, I heard it from somebody else.”

“I said one word and apologized right away.”

“I know. I checked with her. She did think for a moment that it was directed at her and she was shaken. She told one of her friends and that started it going. There are people down here who have been waiting for me to make a mistake, Joe. At the least you’ve given them something to talk about.”

“All right, this is no time to go into it. I’m not kidding you, Karen. I can’t talk. It’s not smart.”

“Why?”

“Think.”

“If she’s listening, tell her to go away. You have the right to take a personal call—”

“That’s not it.”

“What’s the matter with you? Before you left, you were insisting that Steffie and I come down for the weekend. Last night when you spoke to her you didn’t even mention it. I asked her what you said about it and then I had to explain to her. I said maybe you thought you would be home tonight.”

He drew his breath. “I was taking into account the things you had said earlier. About you coming here.”

“Joe, you’ve given me nothing but oblique answers since we started talking. Don’t you realize that it makes me even more aware of that girl? I saw her, you told me about her. You’re flaunting her at me—”

“Stop it.”

There was silence. He waited as long as he could. “Karen, you said something about calling every twenty minutes. I called here once while I was out and she picked up the telephone right away.”

“I won’t take that from you. I can’t,” she said. The line was quiet for a moment, then it clicked dead. There was no confusion with this goodbye. Leland put down the receiver. He was not going to let himself think about dressing and going outside to call her back. He was too tired. She really was the cause of this and she would have to wait. He started up the stairs again, then he looked up. Norma was standing at the balustrade, her hands in the pockets of her robe. She continued to stare at him.

“I was back and forth to Wendell’s all evening. I could have missed her call, the same way I just did catch yours. I should have told you that.”

“You should have told me that you were listening, too.”