“I—I didn’t recognize you,” I said, “maybe it’s the new dress.”
She gave me a sharp glance, “Do you like it?” she asked, smiling again. “Especially for you.”
“I think it’s swell,” I said, wondering what was different about her. “Let’s sit down. I’ve had a strenuous hour.”
She went over to one of the tables and sat down. I followed her. “Well,” I said when we were settled with our drinks, “it’s nice to rest my eyes on a beautiful woman.” I looked at her knees with interest, “You’ve got pretty elbows,” I went on, “I don’t seem to have noticed them before.”
She laughed. “You’ve developed an. awful squint since we last met.”
“Yeah,” I said, watching her closely. “You got rid of Whisky then?”
“I got rid of him,” there was a little note of grimness in her voice that made me stare still more intently. She smiled, but her eyes weren’t amused. “Did you have an interesting morning?”
“I certainly did,” I said and I told her about Peppi. She sat quietly listening and when I was through she said, “What are you going to do?”
“You mean about the job? Why, I guess nothing. I wouldn’t want to work for Peppi.”
“But, isn’t it a good job?” she asked, surprised.
“I don’t know. The money’s all right. But Peppi’s a bad guy to work with. He won’t last.”
“But you’re not working with Peppi,” she pointed out. “You’d be working with this Andasca, wouldn’t you?”
“It’s the same thing. Andasca would be Peppi’s stooge.”
“You ought to think about it,” she went on, “what will you do otherwise?”
I finished my drink, “I’ll think about it but let’s eat now,” I said, getting up.
We went into the restaurant.
After the waiters had fussed around, and we had chosen our meal, I said, “Seriously, don’t you think we ought to find your father first?”
She lifted her shoulders, “Oh, I’ve been thinking about that. You know, I don’t care very much one way or the other.”
I looked at her, “You don’t, huh?”
“No.”
“What about this girl who’s impersonating you?”
Again she shrugged. “She can’t hurt me, can she? If my father wants a cheap victory, I’m big enough to let him have it. But, don’t let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about you. Don’t you think you ought to look around for a job?”
“So you’re considering me now, are you?” I said. “That’s new, coming from you.”
She looked up and I caught a look in her eyes that set my blood jumping in my veins.
“Why shouldn’t I think about you and your future?” she asked, putting her hand on mine.
“You wouldn’t suddenly have taken into your head that you could like me a little?” I said, squeezing her hand.
“I might,” she said, “I might like you quite a lot. But, you’d have to have a steady job.”
“So what?” I said, “I can get a steady job. A guy with my experience…”
“Why not see Andasca and find out if you could work with him?” she suggested, a little too anxiously.
“Aren’t you giving this guy an awful build up?” I asked suspiciously, “I believe you want me to work for him.”
“I want you to get fixed up in a good job.”
“Well, it seems to me you’re pushing Andasca on me,” I returned. “I’ve already told you what I think of Peppi and his set-up. I can get a job, but it won’t be with Andasca.”
“You’re being pig-headed.” There was a note of anger in her voice. “Where else do you think you can earn two fifty a week?”
“That’s not such a lot of dough,” I returned. “Just shooting in articles would get me double that.”
She bit her lip and looked away. “Well, if that’s how you feel about it,” she said and jerked her hand from under mine.
It struck me that the lunch wasn’t going to be a success and I wanted to get her somewhere where we could have this out. There was something at the back of her mind she hadn’t told me and I wanted to know what it was.
We finished lunch almost in silence. When we did speak it was about the people in the room and stuff like that and all through the meal she didn’t once look me in the eye. By the time I got the check and followed her out of the restaurant I was feeling a little low. We stood waiting for a taxi in silence, then when one drew up, I said, “Well, what do we do? Shall we go back and take Whisky for a walk? Or shall we sit in the park or what?”
“The park,” she said.
I hadn’t been in Central Park for two years. It was nice to get back there. It was just like it always was. I guess in another fifty years it’ll be the same as it is to-day. Mothers and nurse-maids, minding children on roller skates, wagons, scooters and bikes, will be reading and gossiping in the sun long after I’ve been put under ground. Row-boats were lying on the lake as thick as water bugs and they’ll be there too. Your born and bred New Yorker with a modest income doesn’t miss the country much. He’s got Central Park with thirty tennis courts, nineteen ball fields, six hockey fields and four-and-a-half miles of bridle paths to take his girl along in the evening. That’s enough for him and it’s enough for me.
We sat on a seat in the shade and watched the people mill around. It was nice just to sit there, but at the back of my mind I had plenty to think about. When I tried to take her band, she shifted away from me.
“Don’t make an exhibition,” she said sharply.
“Who cares?” I asked, surprised. “Let’s talk about ourselves, Myra.”
“Of course,” she said, “what about ourselves?”
“Do we get married?” I said, not knowing whether that was what I wanted or not, but anxious to see how she would react.
“I don’t think so,” she said, staring across the lake at the distant couples walking close together on the other side. “Why get married? Anyway, I wouldn’t marry a man who hasn’t got a position, Why should I? I’ve been getting on all right on my own.”
“People don’t get married for position or money,” I said gently. “They get married because they love each other.”
“Who told you that?” she glanced at me quickly and laughed. “That sounds like ‘What Every Girl Should Know.’ That love stuff went out with the Civil War.”
“There are times,” I said crossly, “when I’d like to throw you into a lake. Can’t we be serious once in a while?”
“Not until you get a job. Then I might.”
“Okay, if I get a job, you’ll think about it?”
“If the job’s good enough.”
“You know, Angel skin, I’m getting a little tired of your mercenary outlook.”
She pouted. “Will you go see Andasca?” she said, “just to please me?”
“What about you?” I said, hoping to side-track. “What am I to tell Doc and Sam? Don’t you want to find your father or Kelly or the girl who looks like you?”
“Ross,” she said, gripping my hand tightly “so long as we have each other nothing matters. I just want you and I to be together always. Can’t we forget about the other two?”
“Well, we could drop them,” I said slowly, “but we’d have to tell them.”
“Then let’s tell them,” she said eagerly. “Let’s tell them now.”
“Okay,” I said, “I don’t mind” and I glanced at my watch. It was just after three o’clock.
“They should be in, unless Sam’s gone down to the poolroom.”
As we walked towards the long flight of stone steps that led out of the park, she said, “Will you see Andasca?”
“Yeah,” I said, “I’ll see him sometime this evening.”
“Promise?” she said, pressing my arm against her side.
“Promise,” I said. “If it means all that to you.”
