U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [342]
" Jeerusalem, it makes me feel good to hear you, you old bum, Fred. . . . It's like the old days of the grenadine guards."
" Jez, that was a circus," said Fred. "Out here it's too damn hel ish to be funny. everybody starved and
crazy."
"You were damn sensible not to get to be an officer . . . you have to be so damn careful about everything you say and do you can't have any kind of good time."
" Jez, you're the last man I'd ever have expected to turn out a captain."
"C'est la guerre," said Dick.
They drank and talked and talked and drank so much
that Dick could barely get back to his compartment with his despatch case. When they got into the Warsaw station
-377-Fred came running up with a package of chocolate bars.
"Here's a little relief, Dick," he said. "It's a fine for coucher avec. Ain't a woman in Warsaw won't coucher for al night for a chocolate bar."
When he got back to Paris, Dick and Colonel Edge-combe went to tea at Miss Stoddard's. Her drawingroom was tal and stately with Italian panels on the wal s and yel ow and orange damask hangings; through the heavy lace in the windows you could see the purple branches of the trees along the quai, the jade Seine and the tal stone lace of the apse of Nôtre Dôme. "What a magnificent set-ting you have arranged for yourself, Miss Stoddard," said Colonel Edgecombe, "and if you excuse the compli-ment, the gem is worthy of its setting.""They were fine old rooms," said Miss Stoddard, "al you need do with these old houses is to give them a chance." She turned to Dick: "Young man, what did you do to Robbins that night we al had supper together? He talks about nothing else but what a bright fel ow you are." Dick blushed. "We had a glass of uncommonly good scotch together after-wards . . . It must have been that.""Wel , I'l have to keep my eye on you . . . I don't trust these bright young men." They drank tea sitting around an ancient wroughtiron stove. A fat major and a lanternjawed Standard Oil man named Rasmussen came in, and later a Miss Hutchins who looked very slender and wel tailored in her Red Cross uniform. They talked about Chartres and about the devas-tated regions and the popular enthusiasm that was greeting Mr. Wilson everywhere and why Clemenceau always wore grey lisle gloves. Miss Hutchins said it was because he real y had claws instead of hands and that was why they cal ed him the tiger.
Miss Stoddard got Dick in the window: "I hear you've just come from Rome, Captain Savage . . . I've been in Rome a great deal since the war began . . . Tel me what
-378-you saw . . . tel me about everything . . . I like it bet-ter than anywhere.""Do you like Tivoli?""Yes, I sup-pose so; it's rather a tourist place, though, don't you think?" Dick told her the story of the fight at the Apol o without mentioning Ed's name, and she was very much amused. They got along very wel in the window watch-ing the streetlamps come into greenish bloom along the river as they talked; Dick was wondering how old she was, la femme de trente ans.
As he and the Colonel were leaving they met Mr.
Moorehouse in the hal . He shook hands warmly with
Dick, said he was so glad to see him again and asked him to come by late some afternoon, his quarters were at the Cril on and there were often some interesting people there. Dick was curiously elated by the tea, although he'd expected to be bored. He began to think it was about time he got out of the service, and, on the way back to the office, where they had some work to clean up, asked the Colonel what steps he ought to take to get out of the service in France. He thought he might get a position of some kind in Paris. "Wel , if you're looking for that, this fel ow Moorehouse is the man for you . . . I believe he's to be in charge of some sort of publicity work for Standard Oil . . . Can you see yourself as a public relations coun-sel, Savage?" The Colonel laughed. "Wel , I've got my mother to think of," said Dick seriously.
At the office Dick found two letters. One was from Mr. Wigglesworth saying that Blake had died of