, their faces lean and somewhat hard. Two of them dropped out. Nick
took a cue from the rack, shed his tight coat. They played under a
glaring electric light in the heat of the day, yet they seemed cool,
aloof, immune from bodily discomfort. It was a strangely silent game and
as mirthless as that of the elfin bowlers in Rip Van Winkle. The
slim-waisted shirted figures bent plastically over the table in the
graceful postures of the game. You heard only the click of the balls, an
occasional low-voiced exclamation. A solemn crew, and unemotional.

Now and then: "What's all the shootin' fur?"

"In she goes."

Nick, winner, tired of it in less than an hour. He bought a bottle of
some acidulous drink just off the ice and refreshed himself with it,
drinking from the bottle's mouth. He was vaguely restless, dissatisfied.
Out again into the glare of two o'clock Fifty-third Street. He strolled
up a block toward Lake Park Avenue. It was hot. He wished the bus wasn't
sick. Might go in swimming, though. He considered this idly. Hurried
steps behind him. A familiar perfume wafted to his senses. A voice nasal
yet cooing. Miss Bauers. Miss Bauers on pleasure bent, palpably, being
attired in the briefest of silks, white-strapped slippers, white silk
stockings, scarlet hat. The Green Front Grocery and Market closed for a
half day each Thursday afternoon during July and August. Nicky had not
availed himself of the knowledge.

"Well, if it ain't Nicky! I just seen you come out of Moriarty's as I
was passing." (She had seen him go in an hour before and had waited a
patient hour in the drug store across the street.) "What you doing
around loose this hour the day, anyway?"

"I'm off 'safternoon."

"Are yuh? So'm I." Nicky said nothing. Miss Bauers shifted from one
plump silken leg to the other. "What you doing?"

"Oh, nothing much."

"So'm I. Let's do it together." Miss Bauers employed the direct method.

"Well," said Nick, vaguely. He didn't object particularly. And yet he
was conscious of some formless programme forming mistily in his mind--a
programme that did not include the berouged, be-powdered, plump, and
silken Miss Bauers.

"I phoned you this morning, Nicky. Twice."

"Yeh?"

"They said you wasn't in."

"Yeh?"

A hard young woman, Miss Bauers, yet simple: powerfully drawn toward
this magnetic and careless boy; powerless to forge chains strong enough
to hold him. "Well, how about Riverview? I ain't been this summer."