U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [459]
They drank little glasses of brandy with their coffee. By the time they got up from the table they were al pretty wel spiffed. Margo had decided that Tad was the swel est boy she'd ever known and that she wouldn't hold out on him any longer, no matter what happened. After lunch Tad showed them al over the boat. The
diningroom was wonderful, al mirrors paneled in white and gold, and the cabins were the coziest things. The girls'
cabin was just like an oldfashioned drawingroom. Their things had been al hung out for them while they'd been eating lunch.
While they were looking at the boat young Rogers and Queenie disappeared somewhere, and the first thing
Margo knew she and Tad were alone in a cabin looking at a photograph of a sailboat his father had won the Ber-muda race with. Looking at the picture his cheek brushed against hers and there they were kissing.
"Gee, you're great," said Tad. "I'm kind of clumsy at this . . . no experience, you know." She pressed against him. "I bet you've had plenty." With his free hand he was bolting the door. "Wil you do like the ring said, Tad?"
-271-When they went up on deck afterwards, Tad was acting kind of funny; he wouldn't look her in the eye and talked al the time to young Rogers. Queenie looked flushed and al rumpled up like she'd been through a wringer, and staggered when she walked. Margo made her fix herself up and do her hair. She sure was wishing she hadn't brought Queenie. Margo looked fresh as a daisy herself, she decided when she looked in the big mirror in the up-stairs saloon. The boat had stopped. Tad's face looked like a thundercloud when he came back from talking to the captain.
"We've got to go back to Jacksonvil e, burned out a bear-ing on the oilpump," he said. "A hel of a note."
"That's great," said young Rogers. "We can look into the local nightlife."
"And what I want to know is," said Queenie, "where's that chaperon you boys were talkin'
about?"
"By gum," said Tad, "we forgot Mrs. Vinton. . . . I bet she's been waiting down at the dock al day."
"Too late for herbicide," said Margo and they al laughed except Tad who looked sourer than ever.
It was dark when they got to Jacksonvil e. They'd had to pack their bags up again and they'd changed into dif-ferent dresses. While they were changing their clothes Queenie had talked awful sil y. "You mark my words, Margo, that boy wants to marry you." "Let's not talk about it," Margo said several times. "You treat him like he was dirt." Margo heard her own voice whining and mean: "And who's business it is?" Queenie flushed and went on with her packing. Margo could see she was sore. They ate supper grumpily at the hotel. After supper young Rogers made them go out to a speakeasy held found. Margo didn't want to go and said she had a head-ache, but everybody said now be a sport and she went. It was a tough kind of a place with oilcloth on the tables and sawdust on the floor. There were some foreigners, wops ors
-272-Cubans or something, standing against a bar in another room. Queenie said she didn't think it was the kind of place Mother's little girl ought to be seen in. "Who the hel 's going to see us?" said Tad stil in his grouch. "Don't we want to see life?" Rogers said, trying to cheer every-body up. Margo lost track of what they were saying. She was staring through the door into the barroom. One of the foreigners standing at the bar was Tony. He looked older and his face was kind of puffy, but there was no doubt that it was Tony. He looked awful. He wore a rumpled white suit frayed at the cuffs of the trousers and he wiggled his hips like a woman as he talked. The first thing Margo thought was how on earth she could ever have liked that fagot. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Tad's sul en face and his nice light untidy hair and