Manners and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, American
"Live at home?" Miss Myrtle's grasshopper mind never dwelt long on one
subject.
"Well, sure," replied Ray. "Did you think I had a flat up on the Drive?"
"I live at home too," Miss Myrtle announced impressively. She was
leaning indolently against the table. Her eyes followed the deft, quick
movements of Ray's slender, capable hands. Miss Myrtle always leaned
when there was anything to lean on. Involuntarily she fell into melting
poses. One shoulder always drooped slightly, one toe always trailed a
bit like the picture on the cover of the fashion magazines, one hand and
arm always followed the line of her draperies while the other was raised
to hip or breast or head.
Ray's busy hands paused a moment. She looked up at the picturesque
Myrtle. "All the girls do, don't they?"
"Huh?" said Myrtle blankly.
"Live at home, I mean? The application blank says--"
"Say, you've got clever hands, ain't you?" put in Miss Myrtle
irrelevantly. She looked ruefully at her own short, stubby,
unintelligent hands, that so perfectly reflected her character in that
marvellous way hands have. "Mine are stupid-looking. I'll bet you'll get
on." She sagged to the other hip with a weary gracefulness. "I ain't
got no brains," she complained.
"Where do they live then?" persisted Ray.
"Who? Oh, I live at home"--again virtuously--"but I've got some heart if
I am dumb. My folks couldn't get along without what I bring home every
week. A lot of the girls have flats. But that don't last. Now Jevne--"
"Yes?" said Ray eagerly. Her plump face with its intelligent eyes was
all aglow.
Miss Myrtle lowered her voice discreetly. "Her own folks don't know
where she lives. They says she sends 'em money every month, but with the
understanding that they don't try to come to see her. They live way over
on the West Side somewhere. She makes her buying trip to Europe every
year. Speaks French and everything. They say when she started to earn
real money she just cut loose from her folks. They was a drag on her and
she wanted to get to the top."
"Say, that pin's real, ain't it?"
"Real? Well, I should say it is! Catch Jevne wearing anything that's
phony. I saw her at the theatre one night. Dressed! Well, you'd have
thought that birds of paradise were national pests, like English
sparrows. Not that she looked loud. But that quiet, rich elegance, you
know, that just smells of money. Say, but I'll bet she has her lonesome
evenings!"
Ray Willets' eyes darted across the long room and rested upon the
shining black-clad figure of Miss Jevne moving about against the
luxurious ivory-and-rose background of the French Room.
"She--she left her folks, h'm?" she mused aloud.
Miss Myrtle, the brainless, regarded the tips of her shabby boots.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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