The Man Who Loved His Wife by Vera Caspary Read Free Book Online

Don waiting. He had gone to see another friend of Nan’s father, a person whose importance made it unimportant to be prompt with a man in Don’s situation. This made Don very late for lunch. As a result the broccoli was overcooked, the hollandaise sauce lumpy. Elaine apologized too extravagantly. Fletcher merely tasted the food and pushed away his plate.
    Don praised every mouthful. “You’re a lucky man, sir, to have a wife who cooks so magnificently as well as having agreat many other feminine talents.” He offered Elaine a compassionate smile.
    She thanked him coolly. Fletcher’s scowl warned her that she must not show pleasure in the young man’s compliments. She tried to turn their attention to Don’s business. “You haven’t told us what happened at your meeting this morning. How did it go?”
    â€œIt didn’t.”
    â€œDidn’t you see Mr. Heatherington?” wailed Cindy.
    â€œFor five minutes. After he’d kept me waiting all that time, he shook hands with me and said we’d have to arrange another date.”
    â€œPeople out here are impossible. No manners at all,” Cindy said.
    â€œHe had a board meeting. But he made another appointment.”
    â€œHow soon?”
    â€œA week from Tuesday.”
    â€œNot till then? He’s impossible.”
    â€œHe’s flying to Hawaii tonight. For a week.”
    Cindy looked toward heaven. Fletcher rumbled out a question. This time they all understood and wished they hadn’t. The attack was direct. Didn’t Don’s bosses in New York expect him back on the job?
    Cindy answered quickly, “They’ve given Don a leave of absence. They don’t want to let him go permanently, but if he finds something better out here, they won’t hold him back.” She tossed an arch smile at her husband, tilted a shoulder, let out a crescendo of laughter.
    Fletcher looked grim. At the time of the engagement both Cindy and her mother had assured him that Donald Hustings had brilliant prospects and was considered indispensable by his employers.
    â€œWell, sir,” Don said glibly, “they’ve been decent enough people to work for, but a man has to consider his future. And, frankly, they’ve got too much family in the firm. All the important cases go to nephews and grandsons, and if you’re notrelated you get nothing but minor cases. So I decided to look around out here.”
    Cindy removed from her mouth the stalk of celery she had been sucking like a stick of candy. “After all, Los Angeles is supposed to be the coming land of opportunity, and with all of Don’s connections out here, we thought . . .” Confused by her father’s frown she giggled again.
    â€œWhat connections?” croaked Fletcher.
    â€œNan’s father,” Cindy began. Don cut her off with the statement that he had excellent contacts of his own. Cindy interrupted with stubborn authority. “Nan’s father couldn’t have tried harder to help us if Don were his own son-in-law.”
    The fact could be questioned. His own son-in-law had been made executive assistant while the only help the banker had given Don was introductions to certain friends. Before this could be stated, Don told his father-in-law, apologetically, “We know you’re not active now, sir. We didn’t expect anything.” Expectancy shone out of his clear, bright, undergraduate face. At twenty-nine, Don Hustings had the docility and easy charm of a boy who has gone to the correct prep school and college. Spiritually he had never got out of either. He continued to wear the deferential garments of the schoolboy who knows his place in the company of older, wealthier men. Good breeding and background were as obvious as his Maryland accent and fresh complexion. He had many notable ancestors but the family had been impoverished by a series of historical events that had begun with the Civil War and