U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [576]
YOUR MOTHER IN TOWN AT PLAZA
SAILING SOON WANTS TO
SEE YOU DOESNT KNOW ADDRESS WHAT SHALL I TELL HER.
Newyearsday there wasn't much doing at the office. Mary was the only one who had turned up, so in the middle of the morning she cal ed up the Plaza and asked for Mrs. French. No such party staying there. Next she cal ed up Ada. Ada talked and talked about how Mary's mother had married again, a Judge Blake, a very prominent man, a retired federal circuit judge, such an attractive man with a white vandyke beard and Ada had to see Mary and Mrs. Blake had been so sweet to her and they'd asked her to dinner at the Plaza and wanted to know al about Mary and that she'd had to admit that she never saw her al--541-though she was her best friend and she'd been to a new-yearseve party and had such a headache she couldn't prac-tice and she'd invited some lovely people in that afternoon and wouldn't Mary come, she'd be sure to like them. Mary almost hung up on her, Ada sounded so sil y, but she said she'd cal her back right away after she'd talked to her mother. It ended by her going home and getting her best dress on and going uptown to the Plaza to see Judge and Mrs. Blake. She tried to find some place she could get her hair curled because she knew' the first thing her mother would say was that she looked a fright, but everything was closed on account of its being newyearsday. Judge and Mrs. Blake were getting ready to have lunch in a big private drawingroom on the corner looking out over the humped snowy hil s of the park bristly with bare branches and interwoven with fastmoving shining streams of traffic. Mary's mother didn't look as if she'd aged a day, she was dressed in darkgreen and real y looked stunning with a little white ruffle round her neck sitting there so at her ease, with rings on her fingers that sparkled in the grey winter light that came in through the big windows. The judge had a soft caressing voice. He talked elab-orately about the prodigal daughter and the fatted calf until her mother broke in to say that they were going to Europe on a spree; they'd both of them made big kil -ings on the stockexchange on the same day and they felt they owed themselves a little rest and relaxation. And she went on about how worried she'd been because al her let-ters had been returned from Mary's last address and that she'd written Ada again and again and Ada had always said Mary was in Pittsburgh or Fal River or some hor-rible place doing social work and that she felt it was about time she gave up doing everything for the poor and un-fortunate and devoted a little attention to her own kith and kin.
"I hear you are a very dreadful young lady, Mary, my
-542-dear," said the judge, blandly, ladling some cream of every soup into her plate. "I hope you didn't bring any bombs with you." They both seemed to think that that was a splendid joke and laughed and laughed. "But to be seri-ous," went on the judge, "I know that social inequality is a very dreadful thing and a blot on the fair name of American democracy. But as we get older, my dear, we learn to live and let live, that we have to take the bad with the good a little."
" Mary dear, why don't you go abroad with Ada Cohn and have a nice rest? . . . I'l find the money for the trip. I know it'l do you good. . . . You know I've never approved of your friendship with Ada Cohn. Out home we are probably a little oldfashioned about those things. Here she seems to be accepted everywhere. In fact she seems to know al the prominent musical people. Of course how good a musician she is herself I'm not in a position to judge."
"Hilda dear," said the judge, " Ada Cohn has a heart of gold. I find her a very sweet little girl. Her father was a very distinguished lawyer. You know