U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [292]
Don was there, and was very sympathetic about her
cold and tucked her in bed and made her a hot lemonade with cognac in it. He had his pockets ful of money, as held just sold some articles, and had gotten a job to go to Vienna for the Daily Herald of London. He was pul ing out as soon after May 1 as he could . . . "unless some-thing breaks here," he said impressively. He went away that evening to a hotel, thanking her for putting him up like a good comrade even if she didn't love him any more. The place felt empty after he'd gone. She almost wished
-321-she'd made him stay. She lay in bed feeling feverishly miserable, and final y went to sleep feeling sick and scared and lonely.
The morning of the first of May, Paul Johnson came
around before she was up. He was in civilian clothes and looked young and slender and nice and lighthaired and handsome. He said Don Stevens had gotten him al wrought up about what was going to happen what with the general strike and al that; he'd come to stick around if Eveline didn't mind. "I thought I'd better not be in uniform, so I borrowed this suit from a fel er," he said.
"I think I'l strike too," said Eveline. "I'm so sick of that Red Cross office I could scream."
"Gee, that ud be wonderful, Eveline. We can walk around and see the excitement. . . . It'l be al right if you're with me. . . I mean I'l be easier in my mind if I know where you are if there's trouble. . . You're awful reckless, Eveline."
"My, you look handsome in that suit, Paul . . . I never saw you in civilian clothes before." Paul blushed and put his hands uneasily into his pock-ets, "Lord, I'l be glad to get into civvies for keeps," he said seriously. "Even though it'l mean me goin' back to work . . . I can't get a darn thing out of these Sorbonne lectures . . . everybody's too darn restless, I guess . . . and I'm sick of hearing what bums the boche are, that's al the frog profs seem to be able to talk about."
"Wel , go out and read a book and I'l get up. . . . Did you notice if the old woman across the way had coffee out?"
"Yare, she did," cal ed Paul from the salon to which he'd retreated when Eveline stuck her toes out from
-322-under the bedclothes. "Shal I go out and bring some in?"
"That's a darling, do. . . . I've got brioches and but-ter here . . . take that enamel ed milkcan out of the kitchen."
Eveline looked at herself in the mirror before she
started dressing. She had shadows under her eyes and faint beginnings of crowsfeet. Chil ier than the damp Paris room came the thought of growing old. It was so horribly actual that she suddenly burst into tears. An old hag's tearsmeared face looked at her bitterly out of the mirror. She pressed the palms of her hands hard over her eyes.
"Oh, I lead such a sil y life," she whispered aloud. Paul was back. She could hear him moving around
awkwardly in the salon. "I forgot to tel you . . . Don says Anatole France is going to march with the mutilays of la guerre. . . . I've got the cafay o lay whenever you're ready."
"Just a minute," she cal ed from the basin where she was splashing cold water on her face. "How old are you, Paul?" she asked him when she came out of her bedroom al dressed, smiling, feeling that she was looking her best.
"Free, white and twenty one . . . we'd better drink up this coffee before it gets cold." "You don't look as old as that." "Oh, I'm old enough to know better," said Paul, getting very red in the face. "I'm five years older than that," said Eveline. "Oh, how I hate growing old."
"Five years don't mean anything," stammered Paul.
He was so nervous he spilt a lot of coffee over his trouserleg. "Oh, hel , that's a dumb thing to do," he growled. "I'l get it out in a second," said Eveline, run-ning for a towel. She made him sit in a chair and kneeled down in front of him and scrubbed at the inside of his thigh with the towel. Paul sat there stiff, red as a beet, with his lips pressod together. He jumped to his feet before she'd fin--323-ished. "Wel , let's go out and see what's happening. I wish I knew more about what it's al about."