brain too beaten now to be surprised with either agony or fear. They must
see each other--they were neither of them quiet people who could love
forever at a distance without real hope. Great Lord, if he and Nancy could
ever have one definite basis to work on, one definite hope of money in the
future no matter how far off that was--But the present uncertainty--They
couldn't keep on like this--no two people in the world could be expected to
keep on.

Nancy. He is seeing Nancy, the way she half-lifts her head when she has
been teasing and suddenly becomes remorseful and wants him to know how much
she does love him instead.




XIII

A hot night in the Pullman---too hot to sleep in anything but a series of
uneasy drowsings and wakings. Smell of blankets and cinders and general
unwashedness--noise of clacketing wheels and a hysterical whistle--anyhow
each sweaty hour brings St. Louis and Nancy nearer. St. _Nancy_, St.
_Nancy_, St. _Nancy_, says the sleepless racket of the wheels, but the
peevish electric fan at the end of the corridor keeps buzzing to itself
like a fly caught in a trap. "And then I got married you see--and then I
got married you see--and when you get married you aren't a free lance--you
aren't a free lance--you're _settled_!"

It will have to be pretty grand news indeed that Nancy has to make up for
this last week and the buzz of the electric fan, thinks Oliver, twisting
from one side of his stuffy berth to the other like an uneasy sardine.