U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [577]
"The judge is reforming me," laughed Mary's mother coyly.
Mary was so nervous she felt she was going to scream. The heavy buttery food, the suave attentions of the waiter and the fatherly geniality of the judge made her almost gag.
"Look, Mother," she said,"if you real y have a little money to spare you might let me have something for our milkfund. After al miners' children aren't guilty of any-thing."
"My dear, I've already made substantial contributions to the Red Cross. . . . After al , we've had a miners'
strike out in Colorado on our hands much worse than in Pennsylvania. . . . I've always felt, Mary dear, that if you were interested in labor conditions the place for you
-543-was home in Colorado Springs. If you must study that sort of thing there was never any need to come East for it."
"Even the I.W.W. has reared its ugly head again," said the judge.
"I don't happen to approve of the tactics of the I.W.W.," said Mary stiffly.
"I should hope not," said her mother.
"But, Mother, don't you think you could let me have a couple of hundred dol ars?"
"To spend on these dreadful agitators, they may not be I Won't Works but they're just as bad."
"I'l 'promise that every cent goes into milk for the babies."
"But that's just handing the miners over to these miser-able Russian agitators. Natural y if they can give milk to the children it makes them popular, puts them in a position where they can mislead these poor miserable foreigners worse than ever." The judge leaned forward across the table and put his blueveined hand in its white starched cuff on Mary's mother's hand. "It's not that we lack sym-pathy with the plight of the miners' women and children, or that we don't understand the dreadful conditions of the whole mining industry .
. . we know altogether too much about that, don't we, Hilda? But . . . " Mary suddenly found that she'd folded her napkin and gotten trembling to her feet. "I don't see any reason for further prolonging this interview, that must be painful to you, Mother, as it is to me. . . . "
"Perhaps I can arbitrate," said the judge, smiling, get-ting to his feet with his napkin in his hand. Mary felt a desperate tight feeling like a metal ring round her head. "I've got to go, Mother . . . I don't feel very wel today. Have a nice trip. . . . I don't want to argue." Before they could stop her she was off down the hal and on her way down in the elevator. Mary felt so upset she had to talk to somebody so she
-544-went to a telephone booth and cal ed up Ada. Ada's voice was ful of sobs, she said something dreadful had hap-pened and that she'd cal ed off her party and that Mary must come up to see her immediately. Even before Ada opened the door of the apartment on Madison Avenue
Mary got a whiff of the Forêt Vierge perfume Ada had taken to using when she first came to New York. Ada opened the door wearing a green and pink flowered silk wrapper with al sorts of little tassels hanging from it. She fel on Mary's neck. Her eyes were red and she sniffed as she talked. "Why, what's the matter, Ada?" asked Mary cool y. "Darling, I've just had the most dreadful row with Hjalmar. We have parted forever. . . . Of course I I've just had the most dreadful row with Hjalmar. We have parted forever. . . . Of course I had to cal off the party because I was giving it for him."
"Who's Hjalmar?"
"He's somebody very beautiful . . . and very hateful.
. . . But let's talk about you, Mary darling . . . I do hope you've made it up with your mother and Judge
Blake."
"I just walked out. . . . What's the use of arguing?
They're on one side of the barricades and I'm on the other."
Ada strode up and down the room. "Oh, I hate talk like that. . . . It makes me feel awful. . .
. At least you'l have a drink. . . . I've got to drink, I've been too nervous to practice al day." Mary stayed al afternoon at Ada's drinking ginrickeys and eating the sandwiches and little cakes that had been laid out in the kitchenette for the party and talking about old