Appointment in Samarra - John O'Hara [93]
Oh, I m terribly sorry. I ll show you.
Just tell me where it is, I ll find it.
I better show you. There s no light, I don t think.
This is terribly embarrassing, or would be if you weren t so nice. I always feel more at ease with a married man. Tell you the truth, my back teeth are floating.
He was shocked and he was glad it was too dark for her to see his face. Either that one drink had had an unusual effect, or little Miss Cartwright who was not little, but rather reedy could turn out to be fun. He lit the lights and then came downstairs and made himself a drink. He heard her, and then he saw her coming down the stairs, slowly now; step by step, at ease. Her steps might have meant self-confidence, in which case he did not like it and did not like her. He wanted to seduce this girl, but he wanted to do it because he was able to through experience and superior knowledge. He didn’t want her to have anything to do with it except to acquiesce. Still, she was near-sighted or something. That might explain the way she walked. Rye and ginger ale, he said. Right, she said. She sat down, and now he was sure it was confidence. He almost laughed in her face. She was not a girl who would be included in anyone s list of attractive damsels, but she had as much confidence at this moment as Norma Shearer or Peggy Joyce or somebody. He knew now that she was not a virgin, no matter what he had thought ever before; and while he made a drink for her he imagined the ridiculous scene with probably a veterinary student with two or three scholastic keys and fraternity pins on his vest the rush of life in the direction of Miss Cartwright, and the quick rush away. He wondered how old she was, and he asked her as he handed her her drink. Old enough to know better, and then, I m twenty-three. Why do you ask that? Just curiosity or what?
The Big Ten confidence. What, probably. I don t know. I just wondered. I couldn’t make an accurate guess myself, so I asked you.
That s refreshing nowadays. Now how old are you?
Thirty.
That s what I thought. I thought about twenty-eight, but you go around with so much older people that I thought in a town like this you oh, I don t know what I thought. It doesn’t make much difference. This drink is much stronger. I suppose you know that.
Yes. I made it exactly as strong as mine. As a matter of fact I had an extra one while you were upstairs. Where d you go to school?
University of Missouri.
Oh, did you? I was thinking of going to one of the Western Conference schools one time.
Well, you wouldn’t have gone to Missouri, then. Missouri isn’t in the Conference.
Oh, I thought it was.
No, she said. I started at Missouri before we came to Gibbsville. I was thinking of transferring to Columbia, to save the expense of train fare and so on, but I decided to stay out there. I studied journalism.
Oh, I see, he said. Her breasts were small. Practically non-existent while she had her dress on, but they would be neat. I m sorry in a way I didn’t transfer, because I d like to have spent a year or two in New York. Soon as I get enough money I m going to try to get a job on a New York paper. The World is the paper I d like to work on, but it s awfully hard to get a job there. It s awfully hard to get a job anywhere nowadays, at least on a paper. I have this friend of mine on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, one of the best men they have, getting an awfully good salary. He went to New York on his vacation and he dropped in just to look around at one of the papers, and do you know what they offered him?
What?
Forty dollars a week! Good Lord, I m getting twenty, and I don t know a thing compared to him, but forty dollars a week. That was as high as they d go. You can imagine what he told them. She shook her head and reminisced with her eyes, not looking at Julian. So she felt more at ease with married men.