Appointment in Samarra - John O'Hara [88]
No. Come on home with me and I ll tell you. Otherwise no. This is a pretty good time for you to stick by me.
I can t stick by you if you don t tell me what for.
Blind, without knowing, you could stick by me. That s what you d do if you were a real wife, but, what the hell.
Where are you going? To get drunk I suppose.
Very likely. Very likely.
Julian, if you leave now it s for good. Forever. I won’t ever come back to you, no matter what happens. I won’t ever sleep with you again or see you, not even see you.
Oh, yes, you will. You will, all right.
You’re pretty sure of yourself, but this time you’re wrong. It s no go.
I didn’t mean that. I didn’t mean I was sure of myself. What I meant was, you d see me. You wouldn’t be able to help it.
Why should I want to?
To gloat, probably. Either you d want to gloat, if you were absolutely out of love with me, or you d want to see me if you still loved me.
You’re so wrong it isn’t even funny.
It isn’t even funny. Lord and Taylor! Wouldn’t that jar you? I ll say. You tell em casket, I m coffin. I ll tell the world. Don t take any wooden nickels. & I m going.
Oh, go ahead. But remember, I m not going to be home tonight. Not me. I m going to call off the party, unless you want to have it. Anyway, I won’t be there.
That s all right. It only makes it a different kind of a party.
Oh, there s no need to tell me that. But you d better be careful with your torch singer. She knows how to handle people like you.
You’re a dear. You’re a sweet girl. I knew you d be a good sport about it. I knew all along you would be.
Oh, go to hell, you and your cheap sarcasm.
No wonder the chaps at the club say I m henpecked, said Julian. He regretted it the moment he said it; club was not a word he wanted to use now. You ll attend to the details about the party, calling people up and telling them I broke my leg and so on, will you?
Of course, unless you want to have it yourself and say I have a broken leg.
That s better. I don t mean about you having a broken leg. But it s nicer for us to be agreeable and sort of phony about it. You know what I mean?
You’re the authority on phony, of course, but, yes, I know what you mean. I know.
All right, dear. Cheerio, I mean cheero. Stout fella.
Funny boy. You’re a scream.
So he left.
CHAPTER 9
GIBBSVILLE moved up from the status of borough and became a third class city in 1911, but in 1930 the city still had less than 25,000 inhabitants (estimated 1930 population in the notebooks sent out by the Gibbsville banks to their depositors). In Gibbsville a party becomes an institution the moment the hostess tells her plans to one other person, and nothing short of a death or other act of God must postpone the party, once the invitations are given. To the persons who eventually had been invited and to those who wished they had, the English party got in the institution class a day or two after the Lafayette-Lehigh football week-end. On their way home from Easton Caroline and Julian decided to have a party some time during the holidays. They were riding in Whit Hofman s car, with Whit and Kitty, and Kitty immediately said it would be a swell idea, and began to count off the nights when the party could not be given on account of conflicting parties. It couldn’t be given the night of any of the Gibbsville dances nor the afternoon of the tea dances. Kitty Hofman finally decided upon the date. There s the Junior League dance in Reading the night after Christmas Day, she said, but I m sick of going to Reading. Let them come up here for a change. We go down there and spend our money on their lousy Junior League parties, but if we ever tried to have a Junior League in Gibbsville you know what support we d get from Reading.
No argument. So let them come to our parties this year, Kitty continued. The Assembly. That money goes to charity, doesn’t it, Whit?
In theory it does, said Whit. It usually ends up with Whit paying for the Assembly, said Julian. Don t forget, you