Read Ice in the Bedroom for Free Online Page B

heart.
    'Soapy, you're a marvel!'
    'I'm not so bad. What I always say is give me a nice smooth-working sucker and plenty of room to swing my arms around, and I could sell the Brooklyn Bridge.'
    'Why, we're rich!'
    'Rich enough to have a vacation in the south of France. Or would you prefer Le Touquet? Just the right time for Le Touquet now, and I haven't been there in three years. I did well when I was there last. That was before we were married. There was a woman I met at the Casino I sold quite a block of Silver River to.'
    'I'm not surprised. You're so fascinating, my great big wonderful man!'
    'Just so long as I fascinate you, baby,' said Mr. Molloy. That's all I ask.'
    The meal proceeded on its delightful course. Coffee arrived. Soapy lit a large cigar, and it was only after he had sat smoking it for some little time that it was borne in upon him that his wife, usually an energetic talker, had fallen into a thoughtful silence. He looked across the table, somewhat concerned.
    'What's the matter, honey?'
    'Matter?'
    'You're kind of quiet.'
    ‘I was thinking.'
    'What about?'
    She seemed to brood for a moment, as if debating within herself whether silence would not be best. Then she made up her mind to speak.
    'Soapy, there's something I want to tell you.'
    ‘I’m listening.'
    'I hadn't meant to tell you till your birthday.'
    'What is it?'
    'It's something you'll like. You'll turn hand-springs.'
    Soapy stared, not precisely aghast but definitely uneasy. He had never been a great reader, but he liked occasionally to dip into the cheaper type of novelette, and in all the novelettes he had come across words like these on wifely lips could mean only one thing. In a low, quivering voice, quite unlike his customary fruity utterance, he said:
    'Tiny garments?'
    'Eh?'
    He choked on his cigar.
    'You heard. Are you knitting tiny garments?'
    'You mean?'
    'That's what I mean.' Dolly broke into a peal of happy laughter. 'For Pete's sake! Of course I'm not.' '
    You aren't…? We aren't…?'
    'Going to have little feet pattering about the home? Not a patter.'
    Soapy breathed deeply. He was not a philoprogenitive man, and a considerable weight had been lifted from his mind.
    'Gosh, you had me scared for a minute!' he said, dabbing a handkerchief on his fine forehead. Dolly was now all sparkle.
    'No, nothing of that kind. Not but what later on…’
    'Yes, later on,' agreed Soapy. 'A good deal later on. Then what's on your mind?'
    'I don't know but what I still ought to save it up for your birthday, but…Oh, well, here it comes. Soapy, do you remember when I told you a couple of months ago I was going to spend a week or two visiting friends in the country?'
    'Sure.'
    'Well, I didn't spend any week or two visiting friends in the country. Do you know what I actually done?'
    'What?'
    'I got a job as maid to a dame. Name of Prosser.'
    Soapy leaped in his chair, and sat staring. Enlightenment had come to him like a levin flash. In addition to dipping into novelettes, he read the daily papers regularly, and the front page story of Mrs. Prosser's bereavement had not escaped his eye. Beads of excitement stood out on his Shakespearian brow, and he upset a coffee cup in his emotion.
    'Baby! You aren't telling me…You don't mean…You didn't…?'
    'Yay, that's what I did. I got away with her ice.'
    There was nothing small about Soapy Molloy. He experienced no trace of chagrin at the thought that the triumphs of which he had been boasting so proudly a short while before had been demoted to the chickenfeed class by his wife's stupendous feat. Wholehearted admiration was all he felt. He gazed at her worshippingly, wondering what he could ever have done to deserve such a helpmeet.
    'All those jools?' he gasped.
    'Every last one.'
    'They must be worth the earth.'
    'They're not hay. Well, now you're hep to why I didn't want to meet Prosser.'
    'But why didn't you say anything about it before?' '
    I told you. I was saving it up for your birthday.'
    Mr.