"I don't know," he said." Maybe I'm having a presentiment. Is that what he called it? I only know I want to remind you - I love you."
"Oh, Alex, dear Alex." She bent forward and kissed him, and felt his sudden desperate clasp of her hand.
The gaudy little clock on Daisy's dressing table rang six.
Henry sat back, stretched, then reached for the champagne again, filling his glass, then hers.
She looked drowsy still, the thin satin strap of her nightgown fallen down over one rounded arm.
"Drink, darling," he said.
"Not me, lovey. Singing tonight," she said with an arrogant lift of her chin." I can't drink all day like some I know." She tore off a bit of meat from the roasted fowl on her plate, and put it in her mouth crudely. Beautiful mouth." But this cousin of yours! She's not afraid of the bloody mummy! Putting it right there in her own house!"
Big stupid blue eyes fixed on him; just the kind he liked. Though he missed Malenka, his Egyptian beauty; he really did. The thing about an Eastern woman was she didn't have to be stupid; she could be clever, and just as easy to manage. With a girl like Daisy, the stupidity was essential; and then you had to talk to her - and talk to her and talk to her.
"Why the hell should she be afraid of the damned mummy!" he said irritably." The daft part is giving the whole treasure to
a museum. She doesn't know what money is, my cousin. She has too much of it to know. He increased my trust fund by a pittance and he leaves her a shipping empire. He's the one who was ..."
He stopped. The little chamber; the sunlight falling in shafts on that thing. He saw it again. Saw what he had done! No. Not right. Died of a heart attack or a stroke, he did - the man lying sprawled on the sandy floor, I didn't do it. And that thing, it hadn't been staring through the wrappings, that was absurd!
He drank the champagne too quickly. Ah, but it was good, He filled his glass again.
"But a bleeding mummy in the very house with her," Daisy said.
And suddenly, violently, he saw those eyes again, beneath rotted bandages, staring at him. Yes, staring. Stop it, you fool, you did what you had to do! Stop it or you will go mad.
He rose from the table a bit clumsily and put on his jacket, and straightened his silk tie.
"But where are you going?" Daisy asked." You're a bit too drunk to be going out now, if you ask me."
"But I didn't," he answered. She knew where he was going. He had the hundred pounds he'd managed to squeeze out of Randolph, and the casino was open. It had opened at dark.
He wanted to be there alone now, so that he could truly concentrate. Merely thinking of it, of the green baize under the lamps and the sound of the dice and roulette wheel, engendered a deep excitement in him. One good win, and he'd quit, he promised himself. And with a hundred pounds to start. No, he couldn't wait...
Of course he'd run into Sharpies, and he owed Sharpies too much money, but how the hell was he supposed to pay it back if he didn't get to the tables, and though he didn't feel lucky-no, not lucky at all tonight - well, he had to give it a try.
"Just wait now, sir. Sit down, sir," Daisy said, coming after him." Have another glass with me and then a little nap. It's barely six o'clock."
"Let me alone," he said. He put on his greatcoat and pulled on his leather gloves. Sharpies. A stupid man, Sharpies. He felt in his coat pocket for the knife he'd carried for years. Yes, still there. He drew it out now, and examined the thin steel blade." Oh no, sir," Daisy gasped." Don't be a fool," he said offhandedly, and closing the knife and putting it back into his pocket he went out the door.