and go where she liked.
I was happy enough to sit there in the sunshine and listen. The Scotch was taking care of
my nerves, and she was taking care of my thoughts. For the first time since that car crash I
relaxed.
After a while she said, “But I’m talking too much about myself. What do you do?”
I was expecting that one, and had the answer ready.
“Insurance,” I said. “I’m a leg man for the Pittsburgh General Insurance,”
143
“Do you like it?”
“It’s all right. Like you, I get around.”
“It must pay well if you can stay at the casino.”
I had to get that straightened out at once.
“I promised myself I’d live like a millionaire for a couple of days, and I’ve saved for years
to pull it off. Well, this is it, but I’ll be moving into the town on Tuesday.”
“Do you like being a millionaire?”
“There’s nothing like it.”
“That’s the last thing I’d want to be.”
“Well, I guess I’ve never had enough money,” I said, surprised at her emphatic tone. “It’s
my greatest ambition to get my hands on a roll and spend it. The casino is a kind of dress
rehearsal.”
“You mean really big money?” She was looking at me with interest.
“You bet I mean big money.”
“Well, how will you get it?”
That stopped me. I suddenly realized I was talking too much.
“I haven’t an idea. It’s all a pipe-dream, of course. Maybe someone will die and leave me a
fortune.” I didn’t get the joke over, and I noticed she looked curiously at me.
I was floundering around to change the subject when she remembered they were giving a
recording of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony on the radio.
“Toscanini is conducting,” she said. “Could you bear it?”
“Go ahead.”
I had never heard Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony; for that matter I had never heard any
symphony, and I had only the vaguest idea what it was all about. But when the music came
pouring out into the sunlit silence, its richness and its surging onrush had me gripping my
chair. And when it was finally over, Virginia leaned forward and shut off the radio and
looked at me enquiringly.
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“Well?”
“I’ve never heard anything like that before,” I said. “I’ve steered clear of that kind of
music. I thought it was only for highbrows.”
“Does that mean you liked it?”
“I don’t know about that. It did something to me, if that’s anything. All that sound, the
movement, the way that fella built it up - well, I guess it was something.”
“Like some more?”
“Is there any?”
“I have records inside. The Ninth’s even better. The choral’ll make your hair stand on end.”
“Then I’d like to hear it.”
She stood up.
“Come and help me load up. I’ve one of these record-changing gadgets.”
I followed her into the big lounge: a comfortable, well-furnished room, full of books and
