In the Best Families

And don't worry about me-whatever you're up to, my lips are sealed. Anyway, to me you will always be Pete. The only woman in America who has necked with Nero

Wolfe-my God, I'll treasure it forever. Now I'll go make some sandwiches. What kind of a diet are you on?

Wolfe said through his teeth, “I care for nothing.

“That can't be. A peach? Grapes? A leaf of lettuce?

“No!

“A glass of water?

“Yes!

She left the room, leering at me as she went by. In a moment the sound of her movements in the kitchen came faintly.

I told Wolfe offensively, “It was you who said we needed a woman.

“It was you who selected her.

“You okayed her.

“It's done, he said bitterly. “So are we. She'll blab, of course.

There's one hope, I suggested. “Marry her. She wouldn't betray her own husband.

And apparently in that one short ride uptown with her-

I stopped abruptly. The face as a whole was no longer his, but the eyes alone were enough to tell me when I had gone far enough.

Til tell you what I'll do, I offered. “I know her quite well. Two things that could conceivably happen: first, you might go to Zeck to-morrow and tell him who you are, and second, Lily might spill it either thoughtfully or thoughtlessly.

I'll bet you ten bucks the first happens as soon as the second.

He growled. “She's a woman.

“All right, bet me.

The bet didn't get made. Not that Wolfe came to my point of view about Lily

Rowan, but what could the poor son-of-a-gun do? He couldn't even take to the bushes again and start all over. From that point on, though, up to the end, the strain was ten times worse for him than for me. It cramped his style some all that night, after Lily had gone off to bed and we talked in the living-room until long after dawn. At six o'clock he went. Probably it would then have been safe for me to go too, since if they were enough interested in him to have posted a sentry outside the building he would almost certainly leave when Roeder did, but probabilities weren't good enough now, not after the picture Wolfe had given me and the programme he had drawn up, so I gook a good two-hour nap before leaving for Thirty-fifth Street and a bath and breakfast.

At ten o'clock I was at 1019, starting at the phone to get hold of Saul and

Orrie and Fred.