Reflections in a Golden Eye Read Online Free PDF Page B

leave the room, and
     break with her husband altogether. But lately she had been overcome by a terrible
     helplessness. And where on earth would she go? When she tried to think ahead, weird
     fancies crept into her mind and she was beset by a number of nervous compulsions. It had
     come to the point where she feared her own self as much as she feared others. And all the
     time, unable to break away, she had the feeling that some great disaster was in wait for
     her.
    'What's the matter, Alison?' Leonora asked. 'Are you hungry? There's some sliced chicken
     in the icebox.' For the past few months Leonora often addressed Mrs. Langdon in a curious
     manner. She worked her mouth exaggeratedly to form the words and spoke in the careful and
     reasonable voice that one would use when addressing an abject idiot. 'Both white meat and
     dark. Very good. Mmmmh?'
    'No, thank you.'
    'Are you sure, darling?' the Major asked. 'You don't want anything?'
    'I'm quite all right. But would you mind ? Don't tap your heel like that on the floor.
     It bothers me.'
    'I beg your pardon.'
    The Major took his legs from under the table and crossed them sideways in his chair. On
     the surface the Major naively believed that his wife knew nothing about his affair.
     However, this soothing thought had become increasingly more difficult for him to hold on
     to; the strain of not realizing the truth had given him hemorrhoids and had almost upset
     his good digestion. He tried, and succeeded, in looking on her obvious unhappiness as
     something morbid and female, altogether outside his control. He remembered an incident
     that had happened soon after they were married. He had taken Alison out quail shooting
     and, although she had done target practice, she had never been hunting before. They had
     flushed a covey and he remembered still the pattern of the flying birds against the winter
     sunset. As he was watching Alison, he had only brought down one quail, and that one he
     insisted gallantly was hers. But when she took the bird from the dog's mouth, her face had
     changed. The bird was still living, so he brained it carelessly and then gave it back to
     her. She held the little warm, ruffled body that had somehow become degraded in its fall,
     and looked into the dead little glassy black eyes. Then she had burst into tears. That was
     the sort of thing the Major meant by 'female' and 'morbid'; and it did a man no good to
     try to figure it all out. Also, when the Major was troubled about his wife these days he
     thought instinctively, as a means of self defense, of a certain Lieutenant Weincheck, who
     was a company commander in the Major's own battalion and a close friend of Alison's. So
     now as her face troubled his conscience he said, to soothe himself:
    'Did you say you spent the afternoon with Weincheck?'
    'Yes, I was there,' she said.
    'That's good. How did you find him?'
    'Fairly well.' She decided suddenly to give the sweater to Lieutenant Weincheck, as he
     could put it to good use, and she hoped it was not too broad across the shoulders.
    'That man!' said Leonora. 'I can't understand what in the world you see in him, Alison.
     Of course I know you all get together and talk about highbrow things. He calls me “Madam.”
     He can't stand me and he says “Yes, Madam,” and “No, Madam.” Think of it!'
    Mrs. Langdon smiled somewhat wryly, but made no comment.
    Here a few words might be due this Lieutenant Weincheck, although with the exception of
     Mrs. Langdon he was of no consequence to anyone on the post. In the service he cut a sorry
     figure, as he was nearing fifty and had never yet earned his Captain's bars. His eyes gave
     him so much trouble that soon he was to be retired. He lived in one of the apartment
     houses set aside for bachelor lieutenants, most of whom were just out of West Point In his
     two small rooms was crowded an accumulation of a lifetime, including a grand piano, a
     shelf of