ike a
child. He must be careful not to say foolish dramatic things to Paul.
As he settled down he tried to look pompous and placid. Then the
thought--Suicide. He'd been dreading that, without knowing it. Paul
would be just the person to do something like that. He must be out of
his head or he wouldn't be confiding in that--that dried-up hag.

Zilla (oh, damn Zilla! how gladly he'd throttle that nagging fiend of a
woman!)--she'd probably succeeded at last, and driven Paul crazy.

Suicide. Out there in the lake, way out, beyond the piled ice along the
shore. It would be ghastly cold to drop into the water to-night.

Or--throat cut--in the bathroom--

Babbitt flung into Paul's bathroom. It was empty. He smiled, feebly.

He pulled at his choking collar, looked at his watch, opened the window
to stare down at the street, looked at his watch, tried to read the
evening paper lying on the glass-topped bureau, looked again at his
watch. Three minutes had gone by since he had first looked at it.

And he waited for three hours.

He was sitting fixed, chilled, when the doorknob turned. Paul came in
glowering.

"Hello," Paul said. "Been waiting?"

"Yuh, little while."

"Well?"

"Well what? Just thought I'd drop in to see how you made out in Akron."

"I did all right. What difference does it make?"

"Why, gosh, Paul, what are you sore about?"

"What are you butting into my affairs for?"

"Why, Paul, that's no way to talk! I'm not butting into nothing. I was
so glad to see your ugly old phiz that I just dropped in to say howdy."

"Well, I'm not going to have anybody following me around and trying to
boss me. I've had all of that I'm going to stand!"

"Well, gosh, I'm not--"

"I didn't like the way you looked at May Arnold, or the snooty way you
talked."

"Well, all right then! If you think I'm a buttinsky, then I'll just butt
in! I don't know who your May Arnold is, but I know doggone good and
well that you and her weren't talking about tar-roofing, no, nor about
playing the violin, neither! If you haven't got any moral consideration
for yourself, you ought to have some for your position in the community.
The idea of your going around places gawping into a female's eyes like
a love-sick pup! I can understand a fellow slipping once, but I don't
propose to see a fellow that's been as chummy with me as you have
getting started on the downward path and sneaking off from his wife,
even as cranky a one as Zilla, to g