United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction; Women college students -- Fiction
As she had foreseen, Sarah’s querulous voice wavered in the halls. And
in the kitchenette her kimono and curl papers tinted the atmosphere. And
everywhere the tap of the pink mules or the sound of the rough plush of
Jerry’s voice seemed to be trembling in echo’s echo. . . . She asked
Félicie to spend the night with her as often as she cared to; but
Félicie didn’t care to very often. It was not that she was not fond of
Joy, as she explained; but it was so much trouble to move herself and
all her things. Félicie liked everything drawn up around her in waxworks
precision of detail, just as she had arranged it at her home.
And so Joy lived in an enforced solitude while considering what she was
going to do. The heavy snowfalls were deadening to enterprise; the
easiest thing to do was to stay in the apartment, which was hers for the
present, instead of looking around for something else. Sitting alone at
the piano in the room which had so often sung with mirth, she found it
hard to realize that she was the only one left in Sarah’s and Jerry’s
flat. One little, two little, three little Indians! One had gone; and
then there were two. And now one more had gone; and there was only
one. . . .
She had not seen Jim Dalton for a long time. When he had called her up,
she had put him off with the excuse of work. She could not see him,
because she felt that she wanted to see him too much. But she told
herself with an easy surety that she was not in love with him; once back
with Pa Graham she had fallen into the magic of music once more, magic
that left no room for sentimentality, and that, she told herself, was
all that her lapse had been; sheer sentimentality. But since the idea
had occurred to her that she might suspect herself of being in love with
him, she was uneasy about seeing him. And surely preventative methods
were best!
Yet she longed to see him, to tell him every little detail of the
epoch-making trip to New York. Looking back she clung to her part in it,
and wanted Jim—wanted him to exult with her over the great one’s
approval. Who was it who said he travelled faster who travels alone?
There had to be someone to spur on the traveller—sometimes! And Jerry
had gone, and there was no one. Félicie was frankly bored with music.
And Jim of her own exclusion stayed away, although his telephone calls
did not diminish in number. . . .
One afternoon in March as she was walking down Boylston Street, she saw
Grant. He passed driving a car, the Grey’s runabout, and by his side was
a girl whose peachbloom face, even at a distance, was vaguely familiar.
As she stared, the girl waved, smiling, and said something to Grant,
whose eyes were on the traffic. He swerved and brought the car into the
curb, and Joy came to them as Miss Dalrymple, the Bryn Mawr girl, leaned
out expectantly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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