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again, Ross jumped into the breach. We would go up there weekends, and Ross had only a couple of guest rooms. He lived rather simply up there. It was very nice but nothing elaborate. One day he screamed at me (he was always screaming and snarling, but nobody took him seriously) that Phyllis and I gave him a pain in the neck. We had to have single rooms; and if it wasn't that way, he could have had other couples up with us for backgammon games!

I said, “Well, Ross, I'm going to marry her, so you don't have to worry about that anymore.” So Ross went in a few minutes later and kissed Phyllis on the brow and said, “Congratulations.” She said, “For what?" He said, “I hear that Bennett's going to marry you.” This was the first Phyllis knew about it. I hadn't quite mentioned it to her yet. I spent the rest of the weekend trying to wriggle out of this. Phyllis said, “Nothing doing. You declared yourself.” All the way down to New York I kept pointing out how I was too old for her and would make a very bad husband. Phyllis just said, “Nothing doing. This is it,” and burst into tears finally, which I could not resist.

But you didn't really...

Oh, I loved her. I was mad for her.

You were just seeing how strongly...

No. I was scared. I was really scared. She's a great