U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [327]
-406-dripping wet hat and coat. She must think. This was the end of everything. The next morning she went around to the office; they gave her her transportation back home and told her what boat she was going on and said she must sail in four days. After that she went back to the hotel and sat down in a chair again and tried to think. She couldn't go home to Dal as like this. A note from Dick came around giving her the address of a doctor.
Do forgive me, he wrote. You're a wonderful girl and I'm sure it'l be al right. She tore the thin blue letter up in little tiny pieces and dropped it out the window. Then she lay down on the bed and cried til her eyes burned. Her nausea came on and she had to go out in the hal to the toilet. When she lay down again she went to sleep for a while and woke up feeling hungry.
The day had cleared; sunlight was streaming into the room. She walked downstairs to the desk and cal ed up G. H. Barrow in his office. He seemed delighted and said if she'd wait for him a half an hour, he'd come and fetch her out to lunch in the Bois; they'd forget everything ex-cept that it was spring and that they were beautiful pagans at heart. Daughter made a sour face, but said pleasantly enough over the phone that she'd wait for him.
When he came he wore a sporty grey flannel suit and a grey fedora hat. She felt very drab beside him in the darkgray uniform she hated so. "Why, my dearest little girl . . . you've saved my life," he said. "Su-su-spring makes me think of suicide unless I'm in lulu-love . . . I was feeling . . . er . . . er . . . elderly and not in love. We must change al that.""I was feeling like that too."
"What's the matter?""Wel , maybe I'l tel you and maybe I won't." She almost liked his long nose and his long jaw today. "Anyway, I'm too starved to talk.""I'l do al the talking . .
." he said laughing. "Alwawaways
-407-do anywawaway . . . and I'l set you up to the bububest meal you ever ate." He talked boisterously al the way out in the cab about the Peace Conference and the terrible fight the President had had to keep his principles intact. "Hemmed in by every sinister intrigue, by al the poisonous ghosts of se-cret treaties, with two of the cleverest and most unscrupu-lous manipulators out of oldworld statecraft as his opponents . . . He fought on . . . we are al of us fight-ing on . . . It's the greatest crusade in history; if we win, the world wil be a better place to live in, if we lose, it wil be given up to Bolshevism and despair . . . you can imagine, Anne Elizabeth, how charming it was to have your pretty little voice suddenly tickle my ear over the telephone and cal me away if only for a brief space from al this worry and responsibility . . . why, there's even a rumor that an attempt has been made to poison the Presi-dent at the hôtel Mûrat . . . it's the President alone with a few backers and wel wishers and devoted adher-ents who is standing out for decency, fairplay and good sense, never forget that for an instant. . . ." He talked on and on as if he was rehearsing a speech. Daughter heard him faintly like through a faulty telephone connection. The day too, the little pagodas of bloom on the horsechest-nuts, the crowds, the overdressed children, the flags against the blue sky, the streets of handsome. houses behind trees with their carved stonework and their iron balconies and their polished windows shining in the May sunshine; Paris was al little and bright and far away like a picture seen through the wrong end of a field glass. When the luncheon came on at the big glittery outdoor restaurant it was the same thing, she couldn't taste what she was eating.
He made her drink quite a lot of wine and after a
while she heard herself talking to him. She'd never talked like this to a man before. He seemed so understanding
-408-and kind. She found herself talking to him about Dad and how hard it had been giving up Joe Washburn, and how going over on the boat her life had suddenly seemed al new . . . "Somethin' funny's happened to me, I declare
. . . I always used to get along with everybody fine and now I can't seem to. In the N.E.R. office in Rome I couldn't get along with any of those old cats, and I got to be good friends with an Italian boy, used to take me horseback riding an' I couldn't get along with him, and you know Captain Savage on the train to Italy who let us ride in his compartment, we went out to Tivoli with him," her ears began to roar when she spoke of Dick. She was going to tel Mr. Barrow everything. "We got along so wel we got engaged and now I've quarreled with him." She saw Mr. Barrow's long knobbly face leaning to-wards her across the table. The gap was very wide between his front teeth when he smiled. "Do you think, Annie girl, you could get along with me a little?" He put his skinny puffyveined hand towards her across the table. She laughed and threw her head to one side, "We seem to be gettin' along al right right now."