ave taken that and gone their way, Eve was
different. Eve only knew it was a ripple on the surface of Jason Wall's
bought happiness. She'd hung around for more. For much more.

"Drink?" Jason Wall asked.

"The usual."

* * * * *

They drank. The butler brought dinner, and they ate. Then there was a
bottle of brandy, and cigarettes, and love play. Finally Eve said: "You
seem restless tonight, Jason darling."

"Do I?"

"I ought to know. I know you better than anyone else does."

"You don't know me at all. No one does, I've seen to it."

"Is anything the matter?"

"Eve, you've never lied to me. That's one of the things about you I
always admired, aside from your more obvious charms. Tell me, what would
you do if I died?"

"Don't even talk like that!"

"Posh! Don't make believe you're sentimental. I want the truth. What
would you do if I died in a year or two?"

"I--I don't even want to think about it."

"Actress! Bah!" Jason Wall grabbed her wrist, twisting cruelly.

"Jason, you--you're hurting me!"

"Then tell me the truth. What would you do if I died?" His tone was
urgent.

"I'd be--sad."

"Blast it, of course you'd be sad. I've given you the sort of life a
girl dreams about. But what would you do?"

"I--Jason, really!"

"Would you hook onto another man? Another rich man? You'd have to settle
for second best, you know. I'm the richest man there is. But don't think
I haven't seen how some of my business associates have been eying you.
Don't think--"

"Jason, my arm."

"Then tell me what I want to know."

"All right. All right, I'll tell you. You've shown me what the good life
is, Jason. I wouldn't want to be without it for long. I--I'd hook onto
someone else, as you say."

Jason Wall smiled. "Thank you," he said sincerely. "Thank you so much
for being honest."

He made love like a college sophomore that night. Eve was quite
pleasantly startled.

* * * * *

Later that week and for the next month or so, he thought of suicide. The
trouble was, he had never been able to stand pain. A weakness. The one
weakness he had. When he thought of the pain which would surely come,
when he thought of the last few months of his life, which would be
spent, pain-wracked, on his death bed, his thoughts leaned most strongly
toward suicide. Yes, suicide was the obvious way out, and Jason Wall had
neither religious nor moral scruples about it.