U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [460]
"Querida mia. . . . Why are you here?"
She introduced him as Antonio de Garrido, her partner in a Cuban dance number on the Keith circuit, but he let the cat out of the bag right away by cal ing her his dear wife. She could feel the start Tad gave when he heard that. Then suddenly Tad began to make a great fuss over Tony and to order up drinks for him. He and Rogers kept whispering and laughing together about something. Then Tad was asking Tony to come on the cruise with them. She could see Tad was acting drunker than he real y was. She was ready for it when the boys got up to go. Tad's face was red as a beet. "We got to see the skipper about that engine trouble," he said. "Maybe Señor de Garrido wil see you girls back to the hotel. . . . Now don't do anything I wouldn't do."
-273-"See you in the morning, cuties," chimed in young Rogers. After they'd gone Margo got to her feet. "Wel , no use waiting around this dump. . . . You sure put your foot in it, Tony." Tony had tears in his eyes. "Everything is very bad with me," he said. "I thought maybe my little Margo remembered . . . you know we used to be very fond.
Don Manfredo, you remember my patron, Margo, had
to leave Havana very suddenly. I hoped he would take me to Paris, but he brought me to Miami with him. Now we are no more friends. We have been unlucky at roulette.
. . . He has only enough money for himself."
"Why don't you get a job?"
"In these clothes . . . I am ashamed to show my face
. . . maybe your friends . . ."
"You lay off of them, do you hear?" Margo burst out. Queenie was blubbering, "You should have bought us return tickets to New York. Another time you remember that. Never leave the homeplate without a return ticket." Tony took them home to the hotel in a taxi and insisted on paying for it. He made a big scene saying goodnight.
"Little Margo, if you never see me again, remember I loved you. . . . I shal keel myself." As they went up in the elevator they could see him stil standing on the side-walk where they had left him. In the morning they were waked up by a bel boy bring-ing an envelope on a silver tray. It was a letter to Margo from Tad. The handwriting was an awful scrawl. Al it said was that the trip was off because the tutor had come and they were going to have to pick up Dad in Palm Beach. Enclosed there were five twenties. "Oh, goody goody," cried Queenie, sitting up in bed when she saw them. "It sure would have been a long walk home. . . . Honest, that boy's a prince.""A damn hick," said Margo. "You take fifty and I take fifty. . . . Lucky I have an engage-ment fixed up in Miami." It was a relief when Queenie
-274-said she'd take the first train back to little old New York. Margo didn't want ever to see any of that bunch again. They hadn't finished packing their bags when there was Tony at the door. He sure looked sick. Margo was so nervous she yel ed at him, "Who the hel let you in?" Tony let himself drop into a chair and threw back his head with his eyes closed. Queenie closed up her traveling-bag and came over and looked at him. "Say, that bozo looks halfstarved. Better let me order up some coffee or something. . . . Was he real y your husband like he said?"
Margo nodded.
"Wel , you've got to do something about him. Poor boy, he sure does look down on his uppers."
"I guess you're right," said Margo, staring at them both with hot dry eyes. She didn't go down to Miami that day. Tony was sick and threw up everything he ate. It turned out he hadn't had anything to eat for a week and had been drinking hard. "I bet you that boy dopes," Queenie whispered in Margo's ear.
They both cried when it was time for Queenie to go to her train. "I've got to thank you for a wonderful time while it lasted," she said. Margo put Tony to bed after Queenie had