U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [517]
. . . How about a little handbal this afternoon? A sweat's
-494-a great thing for a man, you know. If it wasn't so wet I'd be putting in eighteen holes of golf myself. Al right, see you in the morning, Ed." J. W. put down the receiver.
"Do you know, Dick," he said, "I think Ed Griscolm ought to take a couple of weeks off in Nassau or some place like that. He's losing his grip a little. . . . I think I'l sug-gest it to him. He's been a very valuable fel ow in the office, you know."
"One of the brightest men in the publicrelations field," said Dick flatly. They went back to work.
Next morning Dick drove in with J. W. but stopped off on Fiftyseventh to run round to his mother's apartment on Fiftysixth to change his shirt. When he got to the office the switchboard operator in the lobby gave him a broad grin. Everything was humming with the Bingham account. In the vestibule he ran into the inevitable Miss Wil iams. Her sour lined oldmaidish face was twisted into a sugary smile.
"Mr. Savage, Mr. Moorehouse says would you mind meeting him and Mr. Bingham at the Plaza at twelve
thirty when he takes Mr. Bingham to lunch?"
He spent the morning on routine work. Round eleven
Eveline Johnson cal ed him up and said she wanted to see him. He said how about towards the end of the week. "But I'm right in the building," she said in a hurt voice. "Oh, come on up, but I'm pretty busy. . . . You know Mon-days." Eveline had a look of strain in the bright hard light that poured in the window from the overcast sky. She had on a grey coat with a furcol ar that looked a little shabby and a prickly grey straw hat that fitted her head tight and had a kind of a last year's look. The lines from the flanges of her nose to the ends of her mouth looked deeper and harder than ever. Dick got up and took both her hands.
"Eveline, you look tired."
"I think I'm coming down with the grippe." She talked fast. "I just came in to see a friendly face. I have an ap--495-pointment to see J. W. at eleven fifteen. . . . Do you think he'l come across? If I can raise ten thousand the Shuberts wil raise the rest. But it's got to be right away because somebody has some kind of an option on it that expires tomorrow. . .
. Oh, I'm so sick of not doing any-thing. . . . Holden has wonderful ideas about the production and he's letting me do the sets and costumes . . . and if some Broadway producer does it he'l ruin it. . . . Dick, I know it's a great play." Dick frowned. "This isn't such a very good time . . . we're al pretty preoccupied this morning."
"Wel , I won't disturb you any more." They were standing in the window. "How can you stand those riveters going al the time?"
"Why, Eveline, those riveters are music to our ears, they make us sing like canaries in a thunderstorm. They mean business. . . . If J. W. takes my advice that's where we're going to have our new office."
"Wel , goodby." She put her hand in its worn grey glove in his. "I know you'l put in a word for me. . . . You're the whitehaired boy around here."
She went out leaving a little frail familiar scent of co-logne and furs in the office. Dick walked up and down in front of his desk frowning. He suddenly felt nervous and jumpy. He decided he'd run out to get a breath of air and maybe a smal drink before he went to lunch. "If anybody cal s," he said to his secretary, "tel them to cal me after three. I have an errand and then an appointment with Mr. Moorehouse."
In the elevator there was J. W. just going down in a new overcoat with a big furcol ar and a new grey fedora.
"Dick," he said, "if you're late at the Plaza I'l wring your neck. . . . You're slated for the blind bowboy."
"To shoot Bingham in the heart?" Dick's ears hummed as the elevator dropped. J. W. nodded, smiling. "By the way, in strict confidence
-496-what do you think of Mrs. Johnson's project to put on a play? . . . Of course she's a very lovely woman. . . . She used to be a great friend of Eleanor's. . . . Dick, my boy, why don't you marry?"
"Who? Eveline? She's married already."
"I was thinking aloud, don't pay any attention to it." They came out of the elevator and walked across the Grand Central together in the swirl of the noontime crowd. The sun had come out and sent long slanting mote-fil ed rays across under the great blue ceiling overhead.