«No, thanks.»
«No? Well, your fair wife will – won’t you, Gretchen?»
«I love this house,» she exclaimed, taking the glass and looking admiringly at ship models. Colonial whisky bottles, and other fashionable débris of 1924.
«I like it,» said Tompkins with satisfaction. «I did it to please myself, and I succeeded.»
Roger stared moodily around the stiff, plain room, wondering if they could have blundered into the kitchen by mistake.
«You look like the devil, Roger,» said his host. «Have a cocktail and cheer up.»
«Have one,» urged Gretchen.
«What?» Roger turned around absently. «Oh, no, thanks. I’ve got to work after I get home.»
«Work!» Tompkins smiled. «Listen, Roger, you’ll kill yourself with work. Why don’t you bring a little balance into your life – work a little, then play a little?»
«That’s what I tell him,» said Gretchen.
«Do you know an average business man’s day?» demanded Tompkins as they went in to dinner. «Coffee in the morning, eight hours’ work interrupted by a bolted luncheon, and then home again with dyspepsia and a bad temper to give the wife a pleasant evening.»
Roger laughed shortly.
«You’ve been going to the movies too much,» he said dryly.
«What?» Tompkins looked at him with some irritation. «Movies? I’ve hardly ever been to the movies in my life. I think the movies are atrocious. My opinions on life are drawn from my own observations. I believe in a balanced life.»
«What’s that?» demanded Roger.
«Well’ – he hesitated – ’probably the best way to tell you would be to describe my own day. Would that seem horribly egotistic?»
«Oh, no!» Gretchen looked at him with interest. «I’d love to hear about it.»
«Well, in the morning I get up and go through a series of exercises. I’ve got one room fitted up as a little gymnasium, and I punch the bag and do shadow-boxing and weight-pulling for an hour. Then after a cold bath – There’s a thing now! Do you take a daily cold bath?»
«No,» admitted Roger, «I take a hot bath in the evening three or four times a week.»
A horrified silence fell. Tompkins and Gretchen exchanged a glance as if something obscene had been said.
«What’s the matter?» broke out Roger, glancing from one to the other in some irritation. «You know I don’t take a bath every day – I haven’t got the time.»
Tompkins gave a prolonged sigh.