U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [537]
"I hear you are a very dreadful young lady, Mary, my
-542-dear," said the judge, blandly, ladling some cream of every soup into her plate. "I hope you didn't bring any bombs with you." They both seemed to think that that was a splendid joke and laughed and laughed. "But to be seri-ous," went on the judge, "I know that social inequality is a very dreadful thing and a blot on the fair name of American democracy. But as we get older, my dear, we learn to live and let live, that we have to take the bad with the good a little."
" Mary dear, why don't you go abroad with Ada Cohn and have a nice rest? . . . I'l find the money for the trip. I know it'l do you good. . . . You know I've never approved of your friendship with Ada Cohn. Out home we are probably a little oldfashioned about those things. Here she seems to be accepted everywhere. In fact she seems to know al the prominent musical people. Of course how good a musician she is herself I'm not in a position to judge."
"Hilda dear," said the judge, " Ada Cohn has a heart of gold. I find her a very sweet little girl. Her father was a very distinguished lawyer. You know we decided we'd lay aside our prejudices a little . . . didn't we, dear?"
"The judge is reforming me," laughed Mary's mother coyly.
Mary was so nervous she felt she was going to scream. The heavy buttery food, the suave attentions of the waiter and the fatherly geniality of the judge made her almost gag.
"Look, Mother," she said,"if you real y have a little money to spare you might let me have something for our milkfund. After al miners' children aren't guilty of any-thing."
"My dear, I've already made substantial contributions to the Red Cross. . . . After al , we've had a miners'
strike out in Colorado on our hands much worse than in Pennsylvania. . . . I've always felt, Mary dear, that if you were interested in labor conditions the place for you
-543-was home in Colorado Springs. If you must study that sort of thing there was never any need to come East for it."
"Even the I.W.W. has reared its ugly head again," said the judge.
"I don't happen to approve of the tactics of the I.W.W.," said Mary stiffly.
"I should hope not," said her mother.
"But, Mother, don't you think you could let me have a couple of hundred dol ars?"
"To spend on these dreadful agitators, they may not be I Won't Works but they're just as bad."
"I'l 'promise that every cent goes into milk for the babies."
"But that's just handing the miners over to these miser-able Russian agitators. Natural y if they can give milk to the children it makes them popular, puts them in a position where they can mislead these poor miserable foreigners worse than ever." The judge leaned forward across the table and put his blueveined hand in its white starched cuff on Mary's mother's hand. "It's not that we lack sym-pathy with the plight of the miners' women and children, or that we don't understand the dreadful conditions of the whole mining industry .
. . we know altogether too much about that, don't we, Hilda? But . . . " Mary suddenly found that she'd folded her napkin and gotten trembling to her feet. "I don't see any reason for further prolonging this interview, that must be painful to you, Mother, as it is to me. . . . "
"Perhaps I can arbitrate," said the judge, smiling, get-ting to his feet with his napkin in his hand. Mary felt a desperate tight feeling like a metal ring round her head. "I've got to go, Mother . . . I don't feel very wel today. Have a nice trip. . . . I don't want to argue." Before they could stop her she was off down the hal and on her way down in the elevator. Mary felt so upset she had to talk to somebody so she
-544-went to a telephone booth and cal ed up Ada. Ada's voice was ful of sobs, she said something dreadful had hap-pened and that she'd cal ed off her party and that Mary must come up to see her immediately. Even before Ada opened the door of the apartment on Madison Avenue
Mary got a whiff of the Forêt Vierge perfume Ada had taken to using when she first came to New York. Ada opened the door wearing a green and pink flowered silk wrapper with al sorts of little tassels hanging from it. She fel on Mary's neck. Her eyes were red and she sniffed as she talked. "Why, what's the matter, Ada?" asked Mary cool y. "Darling, I've just had the most dreadful row with Hjalmar. We have parted forever. . . . Of course I I've just had the most dreadful row with Hjalmar. We have parted forever. . . . Of course I had to cal off the party because I was giving it for him."