U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [291]
Eveline felt mean and teased him about not having gone through with it as a C.O.; he explained that a friend had gotten him into the camouflage service before he knew it and that he didn't care about politics anyway, and that before he could do anything the war was over and he was discharged. They tried to get Eleanor to go out to din-ner with them, but she had a mysterious engagement to dine with J.W. and some people from the quai d'Orsay, and couldn't come. Eveline went with Freddy to the
Opera Comique to see Pélléas but she felt fidgety al through it and almost slapped him when she saw he was crying at the end. Having an orange water ice at the Café
Néapolitain afterwards, she upset Freddy terribly by say-ing Debussy was old hat, and he took her home glumly in a taxi. At the last minute she relented and tried to be nice to him; she promised to go out to Chartres with him the next Sunday.
It was stil dark when Freddy turned up Sunday morn-ing. They went out and got some coffee sleepily from an old woman who had a little stand in the doorway op--319-posite. They stil had an hour before train time and Freddy suggested they go and get Eleanor up. He'd so looked forward to going to Chartres with both of them, he said; it would be old times al over again, he hated to think how life was drawing them al apart. So they got into a cab and went down to the quai de la Tournel e. The great question was how to get in the house as the street door was locked and there was no concièrge. Freddy rang and rang the bel until final y the Frenchman who lived on the lower floor came out indignant in his bath-robe and let them in. They banged on Eleanor's door. Freddy kept shouting,
"Eleanor Stoddard, you jump right up and come to Char-tres with us." After a while Eleanor's face appeared, cool and white and col ected, in the crack of the door above a stunning blue negligée.
" Eleanor, we've got just a' half an hour to catch the train for Chartres, the taxi has ful steam up outside and if you don't come we'l al regret it to our dying day."
"But I'm not dressed . . . it's so early."
"You look charming enough to go just as you are." Freddy pushed through the door and grabbed her in his arms. "Eleanor, you've got to come . . . I'm off for the Near East tomorrow night."
Eveline fol owed them into the salon. Passing the
half open door of the bedroom, she glanced in and found herself looking J.W. ful in the face. He was sitting bolt upright in the bed, wearing pyjamias with a bright blue stripe. His blue eyes looked straight through her. Some impulse made Eveline pul the door to. Eleanor noticed her gesture. "Thank you, darling," she said cool y, "it's so untidy in there."
"Oh, do come, Eleanor . . . after al you can't have forgotten old times the way hardhearted Hannah there seems to have," said Freddy in a cajoling whine.
"Let me think," said Eleanor, tapping her chin with
-320-the sharp pointed nail of a white forefinger, "I'l tel you what we'l do, darlings, you two go out on the poky old train as you're ready and I'l run out as soon as I'm dressed and cal up J.W. at the Cril on and see if he won't drive me out. Then we can al come back together. How's that?"
"That would be lovely, Eleanor dear," said Eveline in a singsong voice. "Splendid, oh, I knew you'd come . . . wel , we've got to be off. If we miss each other we'l be in front of the cathedral at noon . . . Is that al right?" Eveline went downstairs in a daze. Al the way out to Chartres Freddy was accusing her bitterly of being ab-sentminded and not liking her old friends any more. By the time they got to Chartres it was raining hard. They spent a gloomy day there. The stained glass that had been taken away for safety during the war hadn't been put back yet. The tal twelfthcentury saints had a wet, slimy look in the driving rain. Freddy said that the sight of the black virgin surrounded by candles in the crypt was worth al the trouble of the trip for him, but it wasn't for Eveline. Eleanor and J.W. didn't turn up; "Of course not in this rain," said Freddy. It was a kind of relief to Eveline to find that she'd caught cold and would have to go to bed as soon as she got home. Freddy took her to her door in a taxi but she wouldn't let him come up for fear he'd find Don there.