U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [353]
TO HANG KAISER
-403-it is declared the Coreans are confident President Wilson wil come in an aeroplane and listen to their views. A white flag set up on Seoul Hil is presumed to indicate the landing-place DAUGHTER
She wasn't sick a bit and was very popular on the cross-ing that was very gay although the sea was rough and it was bitter cold. There was a Mr. Barrow who had been sent on a special mission by the President who paid her a great deal of attention. He was a very interesting man and ful of information about everything. He'd been a social-ist and very close to labor. He was so interested when she told him about her experiences in the textile strike over in Jersey. In the evenings they'd walk around and around the deck arm in arm, now and then being almost thrown off their feet by an especial y heavy rol . She had a little trouble with him trying to make love to her, but managed to argue him out of it by tel ing him what she needed right now was a good friend, that she'd had a very unhappy love affair and couldn't think of anything like that any more. He was so kind and sympathetic, and said he could understand that thoroughly because his relation with women had been very unsatisfactory al his life. He said people ought to be free in love and marriage and not tied by conventions or inhibitions. He said what he believed in was passionate friendship. She said she did too, but when he wanted her to come to his room in the hotel the first night they were in Paris, she gave him a terrible tongue-lashing. But he was so nice to her on the trip down to Rome that she began to think that maybe if he asked her to marry him she might do it.
There was an American officer on the train, Captain Savage, so good looking and such a funny talker, on his
-404-way to Rome with important despatches. From the minute she met Dick, Europe was wonderful. He talked French and Italian, and said how beautiful the old tumbledown towns were and screwed up his mouth so funnily when he told stories about comical things that happened in the war. He was a little like Webb only so much nicer and more selfreliant and betterlooking. From the minute she saw him she forgot al about Joe and selfreliant and betterlooking. From the minute she saw him she forgot al about Joe and as for G. H. Barrow, she couldn't stand the thought of him. When Captain Savage looked at her it made her al melt up inside; by the time they'd gotten to Rome she'd admitted to herself she was crazy about him. When they went out walking together the day they al made an excursion to the ruins of the Emperor Hadrian's vil a, and the little town where the waterfal was, she was glad that he'd been drinking. She wanted al the time to throw herself in his arms; there was something about the rainy landscape and the dark lasciviouseyed people and the old names of the towns and the garlic and oil in the food and the smiling voices and the smel of the tiny magenta wildflowers he said were cal ed cyclamens that made her not care about anything anymore. She almost fainted when he started to make love to her. Oh, she wished he would, but No, No, she couldn't just then, but the next day she'd drink in spite of the pledge she'd signed with the N.E.R. and shoot the moon. It wasn't so sordid as she'd expected but it wasn't so wonder-ful either; she was terribly scared and cold and sick, like when she'd told him she hadn't ever before. But the next day he was so gentle and strong, and she suddenly felt very happy. When he had to go back to Paris and there was nothing but office work and a lot of dreary old maids to talk to, it was too miserable.
When she found she was going to have a baby she was scared, but she didn't real y care so much; of course he'd marry her. Dad and Buster would be sore at first but they'd be sure to like him. He wrote poetry and was going
-405-to be a writer when he got out of the army; she was sure he was going to be famous. He didn't write letters very often and when she made him come back to Rome he
wasn't nearly as nice about it as