Galatea by James M. Cain

done Val’s work all year, so there’s hardly any work left. He’s done all kinds of things for Holly, along the line I told you, but it’s better than we had any idea—simply terrific, I’ve seen her clothes. She’s a normal girl at last, and it’s mainly due to Duke. Besides all that, he’s gone straight himself. He wants out, but what’s hanging it up is this thing Daniel has apparently given to Val. Without that Duke is worried, and I for one don’t blame him. Baby, what can we do? Once again, it’s the bassid against the rest of us, but there must be something to do!”
    If he was expecting some nice, friendly advice, that’s not how it turned out. For the second time since we started, a woman was sounding shrill, but this time he couldn’t cut off. He had to sit there and take it, which he did, saying mostly: “I see,” and having no back talk at all. At last he hung up, crossed to the sofa, wiped his brow, and said: “Marge says Holly can get it, if anyone can. If anyone can, Marge said.”
    “Yeah, but how? ”
    “Listen, Duke, if to get it Holly has to love that bassid up, that may be tough, but you should have thought of it when you hijacked the filling station.”
    I thought that over, said: “Well, this is not so good, but at least it’s plain. However, I think I told you I’m in the lady’s doghouse. Would Marge speak to her for me?”
    “Not as she feels now.”
    “Something she holds against me?”
    “Duke, you heard me just now, the way I put it to her, explaining your idea about it, and giving her reasons I thought were better than the ones you gave. She didn’t go for it. Fact of the matter, she was shocked. She’s kind of caught on, as I tried to tell you yesterday, that Holly and you are in love. And she calls it love, not nuts or something like that. On top of which she’s got these ever-and-ever approaches to stuff like that. So she’s shocked. She thinks you should stick.”
    “Get myself sent up to the Maryland Penitentiary, and then Holly’ll be waiting when I get out—she will like hell. If Marge wants a cure for love, that’s it.”
    “I’m telling you what she said.”
    “What do you say?”
    “I’m for Holly, that’s all.”
    “That’s no answer.”
    “You got one, tell me.”
    I had none or I wouldn’t have called him, but in spite of how I’d been jawing, my face was getting hot, from the way Marge had felt. Because in the first place I thought she had more brains than the rest of us put together. And in the second place there it was, the loyalty I knew she had, not only for Bill, but for everyone that she loved, so she had to be one hundred per cent right. It was some time, after I simmered down, before I got going again, so we just sat there, he on the sofa, I on the love seat, like a couple of buzzards. But then, creeping into my mind, came the realization that a split had taken place in the corner across from mine, that he favored one thing, Marge something else. I said: “In other words, if I measured up to her standards, Marge would be on my side.”
    “Too late for that, I’m afraid.”
    “Then I’ll stick.”
    “Damn it, you promised to go!”
    “ If you got me that paper, and on that you’ve been no use at all.”
    “I found out who has it, di’n I?”
    “And in the second place, on anything of this kind, Marge is the one that’s smart. I string with her, regardless of how she feels just at this moment.”
    He held his face in his hands, and I think he wanted to cry. In his secret heart, what he hated most of all was that his sister would get mixed up in something, specially something in stripes. But in a minute I bulled on. I said: “Tell Marge I’ll thank her for the opinion she had of me once, and say I’ll try to get it back. Tell her, on sticking, it’s what I want to do, and on love, no one could have any more. Tell her, regardless of pride, what it costs me, or anything else, I’ll proposition her sister-in-law, on my