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40
STRANGE INTERLUDE


Professor Leeds

Mary will do very well, I’m sure.


Marsden

[Thinking]

Nina has changed . . . this is no place for me . . . Mother is waiting tea. . . .

[Then venturing on an uncertain tone of pleasantry]

Quite so, you two. But isn’t this all nonsense? Nina will be back with us in a month, Professor, what with the depressing heat and humidity, and the more depressing halt and the lame!


Professor Leeds

[Sharply]

She must stay away until she gets well. This time I do speak for her sake.


Nina

I’ll take the nine-forty.

[Turning to Marsden—with a sudden girlishness]

Come on upstairs, Charlie, and help me pack!

[She grabs him by the hand and starts to pull him away]


Marsden

[Shrugging his shoulders—confusedly]

Well—I don’t understand this!


Nina

[With a strange smile]

But some day I’ll read it all in one of your books, Charlie,