Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Married people -- Fiction
It was a quarter to seven when she came out through the white doors into
North Clark Street. The thing that woke her out of a sort of daze as she
trudged along toward her room in the unrelenting rain was a pleasurable
smell of fried onions; whereupon she realized that she was legitimately
and magnificently hungry. In any other condition, the dingy little
lunch-room she presently turned into, would hardly have invited her. But
the spots on the frayed starchy table-cloth, the streakiness of the
glasses, the necessity of polishing knife and fork upon her damp napkin,
couldn't prevent her doing ample justice to a small thick platter of ham
and eggs, and a plate of thicker wheat-cakes.
It occurred to her as she finished, that a quarter to eight probably
meant the hour at which the rehearsal was to begin. She'd have to be
back at the hail at least fifteen minutes earlier, in order to be
dressed and ready. She had no time to waste; would even have to hurry a
little.
She didn't try to explore for the reason why this discovery pleased her
so much. It was enough that it did. She flew along through the rain to
her tunnel, charged up the narrow stair, and in the unlighted corridor
outside her room, collided with her trunk. Well, it was lucky it had
come anyway. She tugged it into her room after she had lighted the gas.
You might have seen, if you had been there to see, just a momentary
hesitation after she'd got her trunk key out of her purse before she
unlocked it. It was a sort of Jack-in-the-box, that trunk. Would the
emotions with which she'd packed it, spring out and clutch her as she
released the hasp? The saving factor in the situation was that it was a
quarter past seven. In fifteen minutes she must be back at North End
Hall, getting ready to go to work at her job. Suppose she hadn't found a
job this afternoon? The thought turned her giddy.
She plunged into her trunk, rummaged out a middy-blouse, a pair of black
silk bloomers, and her gymnasium sneakers, rolled them all together in a
bundle, got into her rubbers and her ulster again, and--I'm afraid there
is no other word for it--fled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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