U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [439]
"I wouldn't have the right to ask you, kid, not til we was married." As they walked up the street to where he'd parked his car she let her head drop on his shoulder. "Do you want me, Charley?" she in a little tiny voice. "I want you too . . . but I've got to go home or Mother'l be making a scene in the morning."
Next Saturday afternoon Charley spent looking for a walkup furnished apartment. He rented a livingroom
-224-kitchenette and bath al done in grey from a hennahaired artist lady in flowing batiks who said she was going to Capri for six months of sheer beauty, and cal ed up an agency for a Japanese houseboy to take care of it. Next day at breakfast he told the Askews he was moving.
Joe didn't say anything at first, but after he'd drunk the last of his cup of coffee he got up frowning and walked a couple of times across the livingroom. Then he went to the window saying quietly, "Come here, Charley, I've got something to show you." He put a hand on Charley's arm.
. . . "Look here, kid, it isn't on account of me being so sour al the time, is it? You know I'm worried about the damn business . . . seems to me we're getting in over our heads . . . but you know Grace and I both think the world of you. . . . I've just felt that you were putting in too much time on the stockmarket. . . . I don't sup-pose it's any of my damn business. .
. . Anyway us fel-lows from the old outfit, we've got to stick together."
"Sure, Joe, sure. . . . Honestly, the reason I want this damn apartment has nothin' to do with that. . . . You're a married man with kids and don't need to worry about that sort of thing . . . but me, I got woman trouble." Joe burst out laughing, "The old continental sonofagun, but for crying out loud, why don't you get married?"
"God damn it, that's what I want to do," said Charley. He laughed and so did Joe.
"Wel , what's the big joke?" said Grace from behind the coffeeurn. Charley nodded his head towards the little girls. "Smokin'room stories," he said. "Oh, I think you're mean," said Grace.
One snowy afternoon before Christmas, a couple of
weeks after Charley had moved into his apartment, he got back to town early and met Doris at the Biltmore. She said,
"Let's go somewhere for a drink," and he said he had drinks al laid out and she ought to come up to see the funny little sandwiches Taki made al in different colors.
-225-She asked if the Jap was there now. He grinned and shook his head. It only took the taxi a couple of minutes to get them around to the converted brownstone house.
"Why, isn't this cozy?" Doris panted a little breathless from the stairs as she threw open her furcoat. "Now I feel real y wicked.""But it's not like it was some guy you didn't know," said Charley, "or weren't fond of." She let him kiss her. Then she took off her coat and hat and dropped down beside him on the windowseat warm from the steam-heat.
"Nobody knows the address, nobody knows the phone-number," said Charley. When he put his arm around her thin shoulders and pul ed her to him she gave in to him with a little funny shudder and let him pul her on his knee. They kissed for a long time and then she wriggled loose and said, "Charley darling, you invited me here for a drink." He had the fixings for oldfashioneds in the kitchenette and a plate of sandwiches. He brought them in and set them out on