Death Before Bedtime Read Online Free PDF Page A

hand as he led me to the door.
    “I do, too, sir,” I said sincerely, not adding, however, that I understood Leander Rhodes so well that I was tempted to take the next train back to New York and start a crusade against him. I had not realized the extent of his cunning nor had I suspected he had so many large sinister interests behind him. It was a chilling interview, even for a political innocent like myself: I realized, as I walked down the hall, that Huey Long had been a ward heeler compared to Senator Rhodes.
    In my confusion, I went downstairs to the drawing room instead of upstairs to my bedroom. The butler was still up, to my surprise, collecting the remains of the coffee cups and brandy glasses. He looked at me expectantly but I only smiled vaguely at him and then, seeing a package of cigarettes on the couch opposite me, I walked over and picked them up, determinedly, as though I had come downstairs for them. The butler and his tray vanished. I stood for a moment, looking into the coals of the fire. The phrase “Man on horseback” kept going through my head. What a terrible man he was! Ithought impotently, and what should I do? just how far from virtue should self-interest propel one? It was very perplexing.
    “Oh, you gave me a start,” said a female voice.
    I jumped myself; it was Verbena Pruitt in a dressing gown of flesh-colored silk, a vast tent-like affair which made her seem more than ever like a mountain of festering flesh; her thin gray hair was done in paper curlers and I noticed that she had a bald spot the size of a Cardinal’s cap on the back of her head.
    “I was looking for my cigarettes,” said the apparition. “I thought I left them on the couch over there.”
    I felt like a thief: the lady’s cigarettes in my coat pocket. Had I been of strong character, I should have admitted guilt and handed them over to her. But, as usual, I took the easy way. “Perhaps they fell down behind the cushions,” I said and I began to search for them with great stage gestures, scrutinizing the backs of cushions with an idiot stare.
    “It’s unimportant,” said Verbena Pruitt. “The butler probably took them. They always do. Anything they can get their hands on.” She glanced thoughtfully at the row of bottles on a tray near the fireplace.
    “Can I get you anything?” I asked eagerly.
    “Perhaps a mouthful of that brandy,” said Miss Pruitt smiling; I noticed with alarm that her upper teeth had been removed for the night … so richly fat was her face, though, that it made hardly any difference. Only her speech was somewhat impaired. I wondered if I should attempt some pleasantry or not about the mouthful … did she want me to carry it to her in
my
mouth? I let it go. The Verbena Pruitts of the world were, as far as I was concerned, an unknown and dangerous quantity, capable of any madness. I brought her a stiff shot of brandy, and one for myself.
    “That
is
nice,” she said, tossing off half of it in such haste that a bit of the essence trickled down her tier of chins, like Victoria Falls.
    We sat down on one of the couches. I could hardly believe it. Here I was alone at night in an empty drawing room with the First Lady of her Party seated beside me, wearing an intimate garment of the night, her hair in curlers and her teeth waiting for her upstairs in one of the bedrooms. It was the sort of moment every boy dreams of, in nightmares.
    “Tell me, my dear young man, what your function is … in relation to Senator Rhodes.”
    “I am to handle his publicity.”
    “Not an easy job,” said Miss Pruitt cryptically, touching her bald spot bemusedly with a hand like a bloated starfish.
    “I’m afraid not.”
    “Lee has many enemies.”
    “I can see why.”
    “You what?”
    “I mean I can see why … considering the principles he stands for and so on,” I extemporized hastily.
    “Of course. Still most of the press is against him … I can’t think why except you know what smart