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Show •98 living-room, casting one final not completely unfriendly glance my way. "What did she say?" "She said you were a handsome man and she could see I loved you, but that we women are delicate creatures and easily fooled, and I should be careful." Maybelle came from a deeply respectable Texas family; oilmen and state senators hung from her family tree alongside minor railroad men and early settlers. But her younger sister married a handsome worthless cowboy who dragged her from one Texas town to another, always promising her the good life, until he finally abandoned her for a cocktail waitress from Killeen. Mary-Ellen was their only child. Looking at my wife I could see strong traces of Maybelle, but that dissolute cowboy's bloodline had softened the general effect and made a pretty girl out of her. I finished my coffee and she poured me a second cup. "I have to go to the bathroom," she said. "Will you be all right by yourself for a minute?" "I'll just sit here and drink this," I said. I could see it was no good now; until Maybelle had come I was making headway and might have convinced her, but I saw that Maybelle would always come, one way or another. I got up quietly- In the living-room the dancing had become general; I saw Benbow standing alone next to a potted palm. |