Afterward she remembered the times when she had felt the happiest. The first time was when she and Dick danced together and she felt her beauty sparkling bright against his tall, strong form as they floated, hovering like people in an amusing dream he turned her here and there with such a delicacy of suggestion that she was like a bright bouquet, a piece of precious cloth being displayed before fifty eyes. There was a moment when they were not dancing at all, simply clinging together. Some time in the early morning they were alone, and her damp powdery young body came up close to him in a crush of tired cloth, and stayed there, crushed against a background of other peoples hats and wraps
The time she laughed most was later, when six of them, the best of them, noblest relics of the evening, stood in the dusky front lobby of the Ritz[150]telling the night concierge that General Pershing[151] was outside and wanted caviare and champagne. He brooks no delay. Every man, every gun is at his service. Frantic waiters emerged from nowhere, a table was set in the lobby, and Abe came in representing General Pershing while they stood up and mumbled remembered fragments of war songs at him. In the waiters injured reaction to this anticlimax they found themselves neglected, so they built a waiter trap a huge and fantastic device constructed of all the furniture in the lobby and functioning like one of the bizarre machines of a Goldberg[152] cartoon. Abe shook his head doubtfully at it.
Perhaps it would be better to steal a musical saw and
Thats enough, Mary interrupted. When Abe begins bringing up that its time to go home. Anxiously she confided to Rosemary:
Ive got to get Abe home. His boat train[153] leaves at eleven. Its so important I feel the whole future depends on his catching it, but whenever I argue with him he does the exact opposite.
Ill try and persuade him, offered Rosemary.
Would you? Mary said doubtfully. Maybe you could.
Then Dick came up to Rosemary:
Nicole and I are going home and we thought youd want to go with us.
Her face was pale with fatigue in the false dawn. Two wan dark spots in her cheek marked where the color was by day.
I cant, she said. I promised Mary North to stay along with them or Abell never go to bed. Maybe you could do something.
Dont you know you cant do anything about people? he advised her. If Abe was my roommate in college, tight for the first time, itd be different. Now theres nothing to do.
Well, Ive got to stay. He says hell go to bed if we only come to the Halles[154] with him, she said, almost defiantly.
He kissed the inside of her elbow quickly.
Dont let Rosemary go home alone, Nicole called to Mary as they left. We feel responsible to her mother.
Later Rosemary and the Norths and a manufacturer of dolls voices from Newark and ubiquitous Collis and a big splendidly dressed oil Indian named George T. Horseprotection were riding along on top of thousands of carrots in a market wagon. The earth in the carrot beards was fragrant and sweet in the darkness, and Rosemary was so high up in the load that she could hardly see the others in the long shadow between infrequent street lamps. Their voices came from far off, as if they were having experiences different from hers, different and far away, for she was with Dick in her heart, sorry she had come with the Norths, wishing she was at the hotel and him asleep across the hall, or that he was here beside her with the warm darkness streaming down.
Dont come up, she called to Collis, the carrots will all roll. She threw one at Abe who was sitting beside the driver, stiffly like an old man
Later she was homeward bound[155] at last in broad daylight, with the pigeons already breaking over Saint-Sulpice[156]. All of them began to laugh spontaneously because they knew it was still last night while the people in the streets had the delusion that it was bright hot morning.
At last Ive been on a wild party, thought Rosemary, but its no fun when Dick isnt there.
She felt a little betrayed and sad, but presently a moving object came into sight. It was a huge horse-chestnut tree in full bloom bound for the Champs Élysées[157], strapped now into a long truck and simply shaking with laughter like a lovely person in an undignified position yet confident none the less of being lovely. Looking at it with fascination Rosemary identified herself with it, and laughed cheerfully with it, and everything all at once seemed gorgeous.
XIX
Abe left from the Gare Saint Lazare[158] at eleven he stood alone under the fouled glass dome, relic of the seventies, era of the Crystal Palace[159]; his hands, of that vague gray color that only twenty-four hours can produce, were in his coat pockets to conceal the trembling fingers. With his hat removed it was plain that only the top layer of his hair was brushed back the lower levels were pointed resolutely sidewise. He was scarcely recognizable as the man who had swum upon Gausses Beach a fortnight ago.
He was early; he looked from left to right with his eyes only; it would have taken nervous forces out of his control to use any other part of his body. New-looking baggage went past him; presently prospective passengers, with dark little bodies, were calling: Jew-uls-Hoo-oo! in dark piercing voices.
At the minute when he wondered whether or not he had time for a drink at the buffet, and began clutching at the soggy wad of thousand-franc notes in his pocket, one end of his pendulous glance came to rest upon the apparition of Nicole at the stair-head. He watched her she was self-revelatory in her little expressions as people seem to someone waiting for them, who as yet is himself unobserved. She was frowning, thinking of her children, less gloating over them than merely animally counting them a cat checking her cubs with a paw.
When she saw Abe, the mood passed out of her face; the glow of the morning skylight was sad, and Abe made a gloomy figure with dark circles that showed through the crimson tan under his eyes. They sat down on a bench.
I came because you asked me, said Nicole defensively. Abe seemed to have forgotten why he asked her and Nicole was quite content to look at the travellers passing by.
Thats going to be the belle of your boat that one with all the men to say good-by you see why she bought that dress? Nicole talked faster and faster. You see why nobody else would buy it except the belle of the world cruise? See? No? Wake up! Thats a story dress that extra material tells a story and somebody on world cruise would be lonesome enough to want to hear it.
She bit close her last words; she had talked too much for her; and Abe found it difficult to gather from her serious set face that she had spoken at all. With an effort he drew himself up to a posture that looked as if he were standing up while he was sitting down.
The afternoon you took me to that funny ball you know, St. Genevieves he began.
I remember. It was fun, wasnt it?
No fun for me. I havent had fun seeing you this time. Im tired of you both, but it doesnt show because youre even more tired of me you know what I mean. If I had any enthusiasm, Id go on to new people.