84 ERNEST HEMINGWAY
now. She had lost him. Lost him. Lost him. It was over. Finished. Done for. She sat crying silently. Mandy was talking again.
Suddenly Diana straightened up. She had one last request to make. One thing she would ask him. Only one. He might refuse her. He might not grant it. But she would ask him.
"Scripps," she said.
"What's the trouble?" Scripps turned in irritation. Perhaps, after all, he was sorry for her. He wondered.
"Can I take the bird, Scripps?" Diana's voice broke.
"Sure," said Scripps. "Why not?"
Diana picked up the bird-cage. The bird was asleep. Perched on one leg as on that night when they had first met. What was it he was like? Ah, yes. Like an old osprey. An old, old osprey from her own Lake Country. She held the cage to her tightly.
"Thank you, Scripps," she said. "Thank you for this bird." Her voice broke. "And now I must be going."
Quietly, silently, gathering her shawl around her, clutching the cage with the sleeping bird and the copy of The Mercury to her breast, with only a backward glance, a last glance at him who had been her Scripps, she opened the door of the beanery, and went out into the night. Scripps did not even see her go. He was intent on what Mandy was saying. Mandy was talking again.
"That bird she just took out," Mandy was saying.
"Oh, did she take a bird out?" Scripps asked. "Go on with the story."
"You used to wonder about what sort of bird that was," Mandy went on.
"That's right," Scripps agreed.
