The Garden Party, and Other StoriesMansfield, Katherine
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The Garden Party, and Other Stories
Mansfield, Katherine
New Zealand -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, New Zealand
Lemonade! A whole tank of it stands on a table covered with a cloth;
and lemons like blunted fishes blob in the yellow water. It looks
solid, like a jelly, in the thick glasses. Why can’t they drink it
without spilling it? Everybody spills it, and before the glass is
handed back the last drops are thrown in a ring.
Round the ice-cream cart, with its striped awning and bright brass
cover, the children cluster. Little tongues lick, lick round the cream
trumpets, round the squares. The cover is lifted, the wooden spoon
plunges in; one shuts one’s eyes to feel it, silently scrunching.
“Let these little birds tell you your future!” She stands beside the
cage, a shrivelled ageless Italian, clasping and unclasping her dark
claws. Her face, a treasure of delicate carving, is tied in a
green-and-gold scarf. And inside their prison the love-birds flutter
towards the papers in the seed-tray.
“You have great strength of character. You will marry a red-haired man
and have three children. Beware of a blonde woman.” Look out! Look out!
A motor-car driven by a fat chauffeur comes rushing down the hill.
Inside there a blonde woman, pouting, leaning forward—rushing through
your life—beware! beware!
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am an auctioneer by profession, and if what I
tell you is not the truth I am liable to have my licence taken away
from me and a heavy imprisonment.” He holds the licence across his
chest; the sweat pours down his face into his paper collar; his eyes
look glazed. When he takes off his hat there is a deep pucker of angry
flesh on his forehead. Nobody buys a watch.
Look out again! A huge barouche comes swinging down the hill with two
old, old babies inside. She holds up a lace parasol; he sucks the knob
of his cane, and the fat old bodies roll together as the cradle rocks,
and the steaming horse leaves a trail of manure as it ambles down the
hill.
Under a tree, Professor Leonard, in cap and gown, stands beside his
banner. He is here “for one day,” from the London, Paris and Brussels
Exhibition, to tell your fortune from your face. And he stands, smiling
encouragement, like a clumsy dentist. When the big men, romping and
swearing a moment before, hand across their sixpence, and stand before
him, they are suddenly serious, dumb, timid, almost blushing as the
Professor’s quick hand notches the printed card. They are like little
children caught playing in a forbidden garden by the owner, stepping
from behind a tree.
The top of the hill is reached. How hot it is! How fine it is! The
public-house is open, and the crowd presses in. The mother sits on the
pavement edge with her baby, and the father brings her out a glass of
dark, brownish stuff, and then savagely elbows his way in again. A reek
of beer floats from the public-house, and a loud clatter and rattle of
voices.
The wind has dropped, and the sun burns more fiercely than ever.
Outside the two swing-doors there is a thick mass of children like
flies at the mouth of a sweet-jar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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