U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [311]
"Traditore." He ran at him so hard that they both lost their balance and rol ed down the redcarpeted steps, the little Italian punching and kicking and Ed holding him off at arm's length as best he could. Dick and Anne Eliza-beth, who turned out to be very strong, grabbed the little Italian, picked him up off the ground and locked his arms behind him while Signora Sculpi fel on his neck sobbing. It was the husband.
Ed meanwhile got to his feet looking very red and
sheepish. By the time the Italian police appeared every-thing had quieted down and the manager was nervously brushing the dust off Ed's uniform. Anne Elizabeth found the little Italian his eyeglasses, that were badly bent, and
-368-he led his wife out, who was sobbing. He looked so funny, when he stopped in the door with his bent eyeglasses trembling on the end of his nose to shake his fist at Ed, that Dick couldn't help laughing. Ed was apologizing pro-fusely to the manager, who seemed to take his side, ex-plaining to the policemen in their shiny hats that the husband was pazzo. The bel rang and they al went back to their seats. "Why, Anne Elizabeth, you're a jujutsu ex-pert," Dick whispered, his lips touching her ear. They got to giggling so they couldn't pay attention to the show and had to go out to a café.
"Now I suppose al the wops'l think I'm a coward if I don't chal enge the poor little bugger to a duel.""Sure, it'l be cappistols at thirty paces now . . . or eggplants at five yards." Dick was laughing so hard he was crying. Ed began to get sore. "It isn't funny," he said,
"it's a hel of a thing to have happen . . . a guy never seems to be able to have any fun without making other people miserable . . . poor Magda . . . it's hel ish for her. . . . Miss Trent, I hope you'l excuse this ridiculous exhibition." Ed got up and went home.
"Wel , what on earth was that about, Dick?" asked Anne Elizabeth, when they'd gotten out in the street and were walking towards the N.E.R. boarding house. "Wel , I suppose Signore husband was jealous on account of Ed's running around with Magda . . . or else it's a pretty little blackmail plot . . . poor Ed seems al cut up about it."
"People sure do things over here they wouldn't do at home . . . I declare it's peculiar.""Oh, Ed gets in trouble everywhere. . . . He's got a special knack.""I guess it's the war and continental standards and everything loosens up people's morals. . . . I never was prissy, but my good-ness, I was surprised when Mr. Barrow asked me to go to his hotel the first day we landed . . . I'd only spoken to him three or four times before on the boat. . . . Now at home he wouldn't have done that, not in a thousand years."
-369-Dick looked searchingly into Anne Elizabeth's face. "In Rome do as the Romans do," he said with a funny smirk. She laughed, looking hard into his eyes as if trying to guess what he meant. "Oh, wel , I guess it's al part of life," she said. In the shadow of the doorway he wanted to do some heavy kissing, but she gave him a quick peck in the mouth and shook her head. Then she grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard and said,
"Let's us be good friends." Dick walked home with his head swimming with the scent of her sandy hair.
Dick had three or four days to wait in Rome. The Presi-dent was to arrive on January 3
and several couriers were held at his disposition. Meanwhile he had nothing to do but walk around the town and listen to the bands practicing The Star-Spangled Banner and watch the flags and the stands going up.
The first of January was a holiday; Dick and Ed and Mr. Barrow and Anne Elizabeth hired a car and went out to Hadrian's Vil a and then on to Tivoli for lunch. It was a showery day and there was a great deal of mud on the roads. Anne Elizabeth said the rol ing Campagna, yel-low and brown with winter, made her think of back home along the Middlebuster. They ate fritto misto and drank a lot of fine gold Frascati wine at the restaurant above the waterfal . Ed and Mr. Barrow agreed about the Roman Empire and that the ancients knew the art of life. Anne Elizabeth seemed to Dick to be flirting with Mr. Barrow. It made him sore the way she let him move his chair close to hers when they sat drinking their coffee on the terrace afterwards, looking down into the deep ravine brimmed with mist from the waterfal . Dick sat drinking his coffee without saying anything. When she'd emptied her cup Anne Elizabeth jumped