Americans -- Austria -- Fiction; Love stories; Vienna (Austria) -- Fiction; Violinists -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Having determined to go, no arguments moved Anna, nor could either of
the two think of anything to urge beyond a situation she refused to
see, or rather a situation she refused to acknowledge. She was not as
comfortable as she pretended. During all that long night, while snow
sifted down into the ugly yard and made it beautiful, while Jimmy slept
and the white mice played, while Harmony tossed and tried to sleep and
Peter sat in his cold room and smoked his pipe, Anna packed her untidy
belongings and added a name now and then to a list that was meant
for Peter, a list of possible substitutes for herself in the little
household.
She left early the next morning, a grim little person who bent over the
sleeping boy hungrily, and insisted on carrying her own bag down the
stairs. Harmony did not go to the station, but stayed at home, pale and
silent, hovering around against Jimmy's awakening and struggling against
a feeling of panic. Not that she feared Peter or herself. But she
was conventional; shielded girls are accustomed to lean for a certain
support on the proprieties, as bridgeplayers depend on rules.
Peter came back to breakfast, but ate little. Harmony did not even sit
down, but drank her cup of coffee standing, looking down at the snow
below. Jimmy still slept.
“Won't you sit down?” said Peter.
“I'm not hungry, thank you.”
“You can sit down without eating.”
Peter was nervous. To cover his uneasiness he was distinctly gruff. He
pulled a chair out for her and she sat down. Now that they were face
to face the tension was lessened. Peter laid Anna's list on the table
between them and bent over it toward her.
“You are hurting me very much, Harry,” he said. “Do you know why?”
“I? I am only sorry about Anna. I miss her. I--I was fond of her.”
“So was I. But that isn't it, Harry. It's something else.”
“I'm uncomfortable, Peter.”
“So am I. I'm sorry you don't trust me. For that's it.”
“Not at all. But, Peter, what will people say?”
“A great deal, if they know. Who is to know? How many people know about
us? A handful, at the most, McLean and Mrs. Boyer and one or two others.
Of course I can go away until we get some one to take Anna's place, but
you'd be here alone at night, and if the youngster had an attack--”
“Oh, no, don't leave him!”
“It's holiday time. There are no clinics until next week. If you'll put
up with me--”
“Put up with you, when it is your apartment I use, your food I eat!” She
almost choked. “Peter, I must talk about money.”
“I'm coming to that. Don't you suppose you more than earn everything?
Doesn't it humiliate me hourly to see you working here?”
“Peter! Would you rob me of my last vestige of self-respect?”
This being unanswerable, Peter fell back on his major premise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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