Lord Byron's Novel Read Online Free PDF

and you can’t get in your hotel till noon—what do you do? Well I put my stuff in the Left Luggage at the train station and went walking. In the RAIN. I had my raincoat but I needed an umbrella. I went to the Lost Property Office—remember Frankie told us that was such a great place? And I wrote down the address? Well it is great—and they had hundreds of umbrellas people had left on trains—and briefcases and hats and PRAMS (?what happened to the babies?) and books and bundles. The little guy there was so cute—with suspenders (I mean braces) and a tie tucked in his shirt and a little toothbrush moustache. He showed me umbrellas. I got a Swain Adeney. The absolute best. He said so. It’s got a big thick handle of some kind of bamboo. “You can use it as a cosh,” the guy said, and showed me.
     
    So now anyway I’m in Bloomsbury and the room Georgiana got me is nice and I don’t know how I can still be awake, I feel like any second I’m just going to pitch forward onto the keyboard. It’s still too early to call you. I get to meet Georgiana at five. For TEA and talk about what to do next. I am a little nervous. I’ve never seen a picture of her even, but I know just what she’s going to look like. Do you ever have this thing where you set out on some trip that seemed like a good idea and suddenly it feels like you jumped off a cliff, or contracted a disease you’ll never shake, and all you want is to be home. O that my love were in my arms and I in my bed again. The small rain down can rain. Write me. I love you.
     
    Smith
    From: “Thea”
To: “Smith”
Subject: RE:Hey
    babe so good to get the note and find youre not in the drink maybe having a drink tho thats good listen you know thats the first time you ever wrote that i l y you did say it a couple of times thats important or maybe it isnt but listen heres something i went to dinner with barb and some of the craftspeople those people she knows they were nice but sometimes I dont have much to say to them you know about yarn or wood or whatever but they were asking about me getting the biz on me and I talked about you and I said the woman whos my partner thats the first time Ive said that partner it just came out then i worried is it okay
     
    anyway i l y 2
     
    me
    From: “Smith”
To: “Thea”
Subject: RE:Re:Hey
    Howdy, podner—
     
    Tea with Georgiana was not just what I thought. She lives in St. John’s Wood, which isn’t a wood, just a part of town, a nice part; an old messy apartment, and she’s not an ancient dame in lace, she’s a skinny stringy woman who looks a little like Jessica’s mother, that sort of worn Waspy type, of course they’re all Waspy here, and she was wearing jeans and a sweater. But nice really. Her apartment is so full of books and papers and journals that it’s hard to find a place to sit; she showed me her bedroom, which was so full you can’t get to the bed, she sleeps in another room, a little den. Every room has a fireplace with this little fake coal fire in it, electric. “The electric fire” she says. It’s so funny. She insists on calling me Alexandra. Her head sort of bobbles when she talks, like those silly dogs people put in the back of their cars. I like her a lot.
     
    We ate the tea (it’s a meal, you know, not just a drink) which was a little primitive, cookies out of a box and some bread and butter, though she took a long time with the tea and it was strong and nice. Then I was sitting on her couch and she went off to answer the phone and she talked a long time, this little droney English voice, and I tried to overhear, and then suddenly I opened my eyes and she’s looking down at me smiling. I fell asleep. For like ten minutes she said. Embarra seeeen as Rocky says. I said I was all right but she put me in a taxi. Oh well.
     
    So now it’s 2 AM and I’m full of pep. Write me again,