U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [406]
"Boys, I'm sorry I've got so much pressing business to do. I'd like to hear about your experiences. Maybe some other time," said George, settling down at his desk. As they left Mary French fol owed them to the door
and whispered to Gus, "And what about Carnegie Tech?" His eyes didn't seem so blue as they'd seemed before he went to jail. "Wel , what about it?" said Gus without look-ing at her and gently closed the groundglass door behind him.
That night while they were eating supper Mary sud-denly got to her feet,and said,
"George, we're as respon-sible as anybody for sel ing out the steelworkers.""Non-sense, Mary, it's the fault of the leaders who picked the wrong minute for the strike and then let the bosses hang a lot of crazy revolutionary notions on them. Organized labor gets stung every time it mixes in politics. Gompers knows that. We al did our best for 'em." Mary French started to walk back and forth in the
room. She was suddenly bitterly uncontrol ably angry.
"That's the way they used to talk back in Colorado Springs. I might better go back and live with Mother and do charitywork. It would be better than making a living off the workingclass."
She walked back and forth. He went on sitting there at the table she'd fixed so careful y with flowers and a white cloth, drinking little sips of wine and putting first a little butter on the corner of a cracker and then a piece of Roque-fort cheese and then biting it off and then another bit of butter and another piece of cheese, munching slowly al the time. She could feel his bulging eyes traveling over her body. "We're just laborfakers," she yel ed in his face, and ran into the bedroom.
He stood over her stil chewing on the cheese and
crackers as he nervously patted the back of her shoulder.
-146-"What a spiteful thing to say. . . . My child, you mustn't be so hysterical. . . . This isn't the first strike that's ever come out badly. . . . Even this time there's a gain. Fair-minded people al over the country have been horrified by the ruthless violence of the steelbarons. It wil influence legislation. . . . Sit up and have a glass of wine. . . . Now, Mary, why don't we get married? It's too sil y liv-ing like this. I have some smal investments. I saw a nice little house for sale in Georgetown just the other day. This is just the time now to buy a house when prices are dropping . . . personnel being cut out of al the depart-ments. . . . After al I've reached an age when I have a right to settle down and have a wife and kids. . . . I don't want to wait til it's too late." Mary sat up sniveling. "Oh, George, you've got plenty of time. . . . I don't know why I've got a horror of get-ting married. . . . Everything gives me the horrors to-night.""Poor little girl, it's probably the curse coming on," said George and kissed her on the forehead. After he'd gone home to his hotel she decided she'd go back to Colorado Springs to visit her mother for a while. Then she'd try to get some kind of newspaper job. Before she could get off for the West she found that a month had gone by. Fear of having a baby began to obsess her. She didn't want to tel George about it because she knew he'd insist on their getting married. She couldn't wait. She didn't know any doctor she could go to. Late one night she went into the kitchenette to stick her head in the oven and tried to turn on the gas, but it seemed so inconvenient somehow and her feet felt so cold on the linoleum that she went back to bed.
Next day she got a letter from Ada Cohn al about what a wonderful time Ada was having in New York where she had the loveliest apartment and was working so hard on her violin and hoped to give a concert in Carnegie Hal next season. Without finishing reading the letter Mary
-147-French started packing her things. She got to the station in time to get the ten o'clock to New York. From the station she sent George a wire: FRIEND SICK CALLED
TO NEW YORK
WRITING.
She'd wired Ada and Ada met her at the Pennsylvania station in New York looking very handsome