Appointment in Samarra Read Online Free PDF Page B

with him.
    Didn t you? Are you sure you didn t? she freed herself. Maybe you didn t actually think I was having an affair with him, but part of the time you wondered whether I was. That s just as bad. And that s the real reason why you threw the drink in his face.
    I might have thought you kissed him, but I never thought you were having an affair with him. And the only real reason why I threw a drink in his face was I just happen to dislike him. I can t stand his stupid Irish face, that s all. And those stories.
    His face looked pretty good last summer when you needed money, and by the way, here s something you d better not overlook. Perhaps you think people are going to be on your side if it comes to the point where people take sides in this. Perhaps you think all your friends will stick by you, and maybe you think that s going to frighten him because he wants to run the Assembly. Well, just don t count too much on that, because practically every single one of your best friends, with one or two exceptions, all owe Harry Reilly money.
    How do you know?
    He told me, she said. Maybe Jack and Carter and Bob and the rest would like to be on your side, and maybe in any other year they would stick by you, but I don t have to tell you there s a depression in this country, and Harry Reilly s practically the only man around here with any money.
    I ll bet he comes to our party, said Julian. If he does you can thank me. I ll do my best, but my heart won t be in the work. She looked at him. Oh, God, Ju, why did you do it? Why do you do things like that? She began to cry, but when he went to her she held him away. It s all so awful and I used to love you so.
    I love you. You know that.
    It s too easy. The things you called me on the way home whore and bitch and a lot worse they weren t anything compared with the public humiliation. She accepted his handkerchief. I ve got to change, she said. Do you think Mother and Dad know about it?
    No, I doubt it. Your father d be over here if he knew. Oh, how should I know? She walked out and then came back. My present is at the bottom of the pile, she said. That made him feel worse. Under all the other packages was something she had bought days, maybe weeks, before, when things were not so bad as they now appeared to be. When she bought that she was concentrating on him and what he would like; rejecting this idea and that idea, and deciding on one thing because it was something he wanted or something he would want. Caroline was one person who really did put a lot of thought into a gift; she knew when to choose the obvious thing. One time she had given him handkerchiefs for Christmas; no one else had given him handkerchiefs, and they were what he wanted. And whatever was in that package, she had bought with him alone in mind. He could not guess from the size of the box what was inside it. He opened it. It was two gifts: a pigskin stud box, big enough to hold two sets of studs, with plenty of room inside for assorted collar buttons, collar pins, tie clasps and Caroline had put in a dozen or so front and back collar buttons. The other gift was of pigskin, too; a handkerchief case that collapsed like an accordion. Both things had J. McH. E. stamped in small gilt letters on the top cover, and that in itself showed thought. She knew, and no one else in the world knew, that he liked things stamped J. McH. E., and not just J. E., or J. M. E. Maybe she even knew why he liked it that way; he wasn t sure himself. He stood at the table, looking down at the handkerchief case and stud box, and was afraid. Upstairs was a girl who was a person. That he loved her seemed unimportant compared to what she was. He only loved her, which really made him a lot less than a friend or an acquaintance. Other people saw her and talked to her when she was herself, her great, important self. It was wrong, this idea that you know someone better because you have shared a bed and a bathroom with her. He knew, and not another human