(1961) The Chapman Report Read Online Free PDF Page B

had Cleopatra’s nose “been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would have been altered”). Her mouth was small, though her lips were full and her white teeth regular. She was flat-chested-no foam padding would hide this-and flat-bottomed. And yet, she did not feel unlovely. She had grown up the center of the household and the vast family beyond, always admired and clucked over. Her natural high spirits had made prettier girls seem pallid, and she had never lacked a boy friend. And when she had wanted a husband, Norman had appeared and supplanted childhood affection with mature love. From the moment of their meeting, Norman had become the center of her universe. Harry Ewing had objected at first, in his soft-spoken, decent way, protesting her youth and Norman’s poverty. (he had just been admitted to the California bar). Because she adored her father, she had listened attentively, but immediately set out to win him over. Since Harry Ewing could refuse his daughter nothing, he agreed to let her have her husband, knowing she would have him anyway. The only condition Harry set-and to this Mary and Norman quickly and gratefully acceded-was that the newlyweds move into the vacant upstairs suite of the Spanish stucco house and live under the Ewing roof until they could one day get on their feet and have their own home. Then, anxious to get his daughter’s marriage on a secure financial footing, Harry Ewing went further. Just when Norman had applied to several large legal firms for jobs, and when he was seriously considering going into a partnership with his old classmate, Chris Shearer, in a poorer section of downtown Los Angeles, Harry Ewing made his son-in-law a generous offer. Harry manufactured prefabricated building parts, and his legal department had four attorneys. One was leaving, and Harry tendered the position to Norman, with a starting salary of $150 a week.
    Mary was overwhelmed by her father’s generosity, but Norman was less so. Somehow, he felt that he was giving up part of his independence for a dowry. Moreover, the prospect of becoming a real struggling trial attorney with Chris, in a district that needed help, seemed more challenging. But, after a brief day or two of vacillation and uncertainty, he was at last convinced that Harry’s opening was one that a hundred young barristers would covet (which, indeed, they would), that his concept of attorney-at-law among depressed peoples was romantic and impractical, and that, after all, Mary deserved the best. Carried away by his wife’s enthusiasm, Norman joined her father’s staff.
    In the year and a half since, sensing her husband’s restlessness at being a desk and contract lawyer, Mary had tried to alleviate his boredom. Secretly, she had spoken to her father, imploring him to give Norman some of the courtroom work. Her father had promised that he would do so at the first opportunity. That had been several months ago. Nothing had happened since.
    Now, turning on her pillows to look at the electric clock, Mary saw that it was twenty to ten. Her father would be down to breakfast already, and he would be done by ten. He would expect Norman to be ready, since they drove to the plant together every morning in Harry’s Cadillac. She had decided she had better remind Norman of the time, when suddenly the shower stopped.
    Quickly, Mary sat up, slid off the bed, and padded barefoot to the bathroom door.
    She pressed her head to the door. “Norm?”
    “Yes?”
    “It’s twenty to ten.”
    “Okay.”
    She remembered Kathleen’s call. “Guess who called.”
    “What?”
    “I said guess who called.” She raised her voice slightly. “Kathleen Ballard just telephoned. Dr. Chapman’s coming here to interview us.”
    “I can’t hear you. Come on in. The door’s open.”
    She turned the glass knob and went inside. The narrow bathroom was warm, and steam clung to the walls and mirror. Norman was in the center of the room, beside the bathtub, standing