“Good God, Terry,” he said in irritation. “Is it me or is there something wrong? Really wrong? Perhaps I could do something to help you.”

“No, Jack. Just go away. I’ll be all right. I just want to be alone.”

He rose in a huff, shaking his head angrily. “And I thought you were one of the few real ones,” he said. “That prima donna stuff doesn’t impress me. I’ve seen too much of it. I’m not a schoolboy, you know. Hell, put on an ‘I wanna be alone’ act if that’s what you want to do, but please don’t think I’ve got nothing to do but wait around in between your moods.”

She didn’t answer him. He left without looking back at her.

She dried her eyes, then touched up her face with fresh makeup. Her eyes were large with grief but her mouth was drawn straight now in a firm determined line. She picked up the newspaper which she had been unable to touch earlier in the evening.

There was a news story, describing an interview with the District Attorney regarding the McKay case. Terry read quickly through it, but the story contained nothing that she hadn’t already seen before.

She turned the pages rapidly, coming upon Lowry’s column. His little sermon stared out at her from the bottom of the page. I don’t pretend to be a philosopher but it seems to me that the case of Bob McKay is a sad and embittering commentary on our so-called civilization. If this is the way it is with human beings, will somebody please tell me what it’s all worth?

Memories flew through her mind.

She sat at the table at the Lafayette, alone, watching while Bob McKay led his orchestra into the swing frenzies that made him famous. Everyone else was watching him, too, but she had that special feeling of knowing that he was playing not for them but for her. She saw Bob weaving around in circles as he blew his heart out on saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, anything that would respond to the dynamic, rhythmical power of his lungs.

And at the height of a number’s wildness, at the peak of the bacchanalian ecstasy, he reeled around to face her and without taking his lips from the tightly held instrument he bared his teeth in a warm smile that told her he would be down as soon as he possibly could.

The fantastic music stopped abruptly.

The sudden silence in the big dance hall was practically deafening.