Marijuana Girl by N. R. De Mexico

comes to me from what you write in your letters. And she is very beautiful. It's like putting two and two together and then saying, well, I won't add them up so I only suspect they make four.
    I wouldn't write you like this if it were just for the affair you're having. You've had these summer affairs before. But there is something else. You're probably concealing it from yourself, but you're terribly unhappy without her, and jealous and angry with yourself. That shows in your letters, too. And if you let yourself get more deeply entangled in the emotional problems this thing is making for you, you'll become so involved with the Taylor girl that I'll never get you back.
    I don't like to threaten you, my darling. And this isn't really a threat, because I'm so sure of the outcome. But, my darling, you must decide now, before things become worse. You are supposed to come up here the eighteenth anyway, so let's make that the time for decision--a sort of cutting-day for the Gordian knot.
    Don't come here, my darling, unless you have finished off this affair. Please don't come. And if you don't come, then I'll know that it's all over and that it has been wonderful being married to you, but that we had to break it off.
    And, if you do come, I shan't say a word to you. Not a word, my darling. But I'll know that you love just me ...
    P.S. Junior slobbered on the letter. He means he loves you, too.
    Joyce met Tony at the corner of Second Street and Madison. She had intended to go with Frank to New York, that evening. But all day long he had been in a strange, tense mood. At noon she had seen him close the door of his office, a thing he never did ordinarily, and he had kept it closed until late in the afternoon.
    She had been supposed to have lunch with Frank, but he did not open the office door, did not come out, as he ordinarily would, to ask if she was ready. Finally she had gone by herself. About four o'clock he came to her desk.
    "Listen, Joy," he said. "Something's come up, and I won't be able to make it tonight. There's something I have to get straightened out here." And that was when she decided to telephone Tony.
    "Want to take me out tonight?"
    "Why not? Don't I always?"
    "So pick me up at the corner of Madison and Second at six o'clock, Okay?" Tony's car was parked on Madison, just above where it narrowed for the underpass beneath the Long Island Railroad bridge.
    She waved at him as soon as she saw him, his spidery legs mysteriously entangled in the steering wheel, his arms stretched back behind his head as he reclined in luxurious ease against the leather seat cushions.
    "Hi, lazy," she said.
    "Saving up my energy for school," he said. "It's been decided. I'm not going to Harvard at all. I'm registered at NYU. Went in to town this morning to get signed up."
    "Good," Joy said. Not really meaning anything special.
    "Any particular place you want to go?" Tony asked, as he started the car.
    "I got eyes for some sea-food."
    "What kind of an expression is that? I've got eyes for some sea-food?"
    "It's musicians' talk," Joyce explained. "Jive-talk. All the cats dig it. You mean you ain't hip, man?"
    "Cut it out."
    "What do you mean, cut it out? I'll talk as I please."
    "Not with me, you won't," Tony said. "And another thing, why did you tell me to meet you at the corner of Second and Madison? What's the matter with in front of the Courier building? You do still work there, don't you?"
    "Of course I do."
    "Then ...?"
    "Well ..." She stumbled. "I--I had something I had to see about at the corner of Second and Madison."
    "Something important at the ice house, of course ..." His voice was loaded with sarcasm.
    "As a matter of fact, it was. I had to see a Mister--Mister Pelley there. It was about an--an Elks meeting."
    "Quit lying to me, Joy."
    "Don't you dare call me a liar, Tony Thrine. If you ever say that again I'll ..."
    "Just what will you do, Joy?"
    "I'll never see you again."
    "All right. Now I'll tell you a few things. The