Miss Nestleburt sighed and replaced her glasses. "He laughed and
laughed, and then he said in that gallant way of his, 'I apologize
deeply, madame! I had no idea you were going to sit in that particular
chair! It was a most unfortunate coincidence!' And then, while I stood
there dripping tomato juice, he started laughing again, and he laughed
until the tears rolled down his face." The fine lines under Miss
Nesdeburt's eyes crinkled with reluctant amusement.
I finished drying Donna and began pulling her tiny gingham dress over
her head. Miss Nestleburt rose.
"Well, I must go lie in the sun for a while," she said. "It's such a
fine, bright day, n'est-ce pas? Be sure to remember your dreams from
now on, and I'll interpret them for you."
I assured her that I would, although I seldom had a chance to get more
than a third of the way into a dream before some cabin-hunter rang our
bell.
I went out to help Grant clean cabins. He was working in the rear
group, in number 9, at the moment. Donna pulled newspapers out of the
wastebasket while I set to work making the bed for which Grant had just
brought clean sheets. We "bolster" the pillows by smacking an arm down
the middle of each pillow when the clean slip is on it, folding it back
over the arm. This gives a stiff, smart appearance to the bed when the
spread is drawn taut around the pillows. There's all the difference
between pillows au naturel and pillows bolstered, that there is between
a slovenly woman without a brassiere, and a sprightly one who is
wearing the latest style uplift.
Although I bolstered the pillows faithfully, I never put the sheets on
the beds in accordance with the rules. I never bothered with "square
corners," but simply tucked the sheets in all around in my own
speedier, although slightly less neat, way.
Grant was just finishing the bathroom when I saw, through the slats of
the Venetian blind, that a car had pulled up in front of the office.
"You go," I said. "I'm tired of galloping way up there just to tell
people we don't have any cabins with kitchens."
Grant set down his bucket of soapy water, and through the slats I
watched his tall figure hurrying toward the car. He talked a few
seconds to the man and woman who were standing by the car; then,
preparatory to leading them to a cabin, he turned and started away from
them. But he had been standing just off the sidewalk, which jutted up
an inch above the gravel. He caught his toe on the sidewalk and thrust
his other foot forward quickly to regain his balance. He half ran, half
staggered, in a crouching position, for several grotesque, humiliating
steps, until at last he recovered his equilibrium and was able to stand
upright.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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