U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [337]
"I don't think it's going to rain," said Dick. "Suppose I get hold of a girl for you and we take a drive and eat supper at Caesar's palace . . . maybe it won't be too cold." Dick remembered Anne Elizabeth and cal ed up the
N.E.R. The Texas voice was delighted, said the relievers were awful and that she'd made a date with Mr. Barrow but would get out of it. Yes, she'd be ready if they cal ed for her in half an hour. After a lot of bargaining between Signora Sculpi and a cabman they hired a twohorse landau considerably elegant and decrepit. Anne Elizabeth was waiting for them at her door. "Those old hens make me tired," she said, jumping into the cab. "Tel him to hurry or Mr. Barrow'l catch us. . . . Those old hens say I have to be in by nine o'clock. I declare it worse'n Sunday-school in there. . . . It was mighty nice of you to ask me out to meet your friends, Captain Savage. . . . I was just dying to get out and see the town. . . . Isn't it won-derful? Say, where does the Pope live?" The sun had set and it had begun to get chil y. The Palazzo dei Cesari was empty and chil y, so they merely had a vermouth there and went back into town for dinner. After dinner they went to a show at the Apol o.
"My, I'l ketch it," said Anne Elizabeth, "but I don't care. I want to see the town." She took Dick's arm as they went into the theatre. "Do you know, Dick . . . al these foreigners make me feel kinder lonesome . . . I'm glad I got a white man with me. . . . When I was at school in New York I used to go out to Jersey to see a textile strike . . . I used to be interested in things like that. I used to feel like I do now then. But I wouldn't miss any of it. Maybe it's the way
-367-you feel when you're having a real y interesting time." Dick felt a little drunk and very affectionate. He squeezed her arm and leaned over her. "Bad mans shan't hurt lil'
Texas girl," he crooned. "I guess you think I haven't got good sense," said Anne Elizabeth, suddenly changing her tone. "But oh lawsie, how'm I going to get along with that Methodist Board of Temperance and Public Morals I've got to live with! I don't mean I don't think their work's fine . . . It's awful to think of poor little children starv-ing everywhere. . . . We've won the war, now it's up to us to help patch things up in Europe just like the President says." The curtain was going up and al the Italians around started shushing. Anne Elizabeth subsided. When Dick tried to get hold of her hand she pul ed it away and flicked his with her fingers. "Say, I thought you were out of highschool," she said.
The show wasn't much, and Anne Elizabeth who
couldn't understand a word, kept letting her head drop on Dick's shoulder and going to sleep. In the intermission when they al went to the bar for drinks, Anne Elizabeth dutiful y took lemonade. Going upstairs again to their seats, there was suddenly a scuffle. A little Italian with eye-glasses and a bald head had run at Ed Schuyler screaming,
"Traditore." He ran at him so hard that they both lost their balance and rol ed down the redcarpeted steps, the little Italian punching and kicking and Ed holding him off at arm's length as best he could. Dick and Anne Eliza-beth, who turned out to be very strong, grabbed the little Italian, picked him up off the ground and locked his arms behind him while Signora Sculpi fel on his neck sobbing. It was the husband.
Ed meanwhile got to his feet looking very red and
sheepish. By the time the Italian police appeared every-thing had quieted down and the manager was nervously brushing the dust off Ed's uniform. Anne Elizabeth found the little Italian his eyeglasses, that were badly bent, and
-368-he led his wife out, who was sobbing. He looked so funny, when he stopped in the door with his bent eyeglasses trembling on the end of his nose to shake his fist at Ed, that Dick couldn't help laughing. Ed was apologizing pro-fusely to the manager, who seemed to take his side, ex-plaining to the policemen in their shiny hats that the husband was pazzo. The bel rang and they al went back to their seats.