The Girl With the Glass Heart: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

you think she is now? You think I know? With boys maybe.”
    “That’s nothing so terrible.”
    There was a murmur of agreement. Rose went to the kitchen and Harry glanced quickly at Sarah. She followed Rose.
    When the women had gone, Harry accepted a cigar from Max and said, “If you still want to open the new factory in Colchester you can have half the money from me.” He exhaled sharply as if he had been saving the words for some time.
    Alec turned from the window where he had been daydreaming and looked at his older brothers.
    Max was on his feet. “Thanks, Harry,” he said. “I guess I’ve been waiting for that to make up my mind for me.”
    “Okay,” Harry said. “For the rest of the money I’ll cosign a note for you. You see, Alec, your brother is such a good business risk I’ll even sign a note for him.”
    “I always knew he was,” Alec said quietly.
    “Rose,” Max bellowed happily. “Sarah, Rose, come in here.”
    Sarah appeared, Rose following, wiping her hands on an apron.
    “We’re going to—” Max began, but Harry interrupted.
    “I’m lending the money for the new factory.”
    Half the money, Alec was tempted to add, but the ensuing tumult changed his mind.
    “Everybody stays to dinner,” Rose announced. “Maybe the last time you’ll all have dinner in this apartment. If Max builds, we’re moving to Colchester.”
    “I’ll call Charlotte and tell her to come over,” Sarah said.
    The dining-room table was opened. Only Elly’s absence held up the beginning of dinner. Finally they began without her, in an atmosphere of festivity. The front door opened and Elly entered, jacket in hand, her pale face streaked with tears.
    “What’s the matter, Elly?”
    “We’ve got some wonderful news.”
    “What happened?”
    She disappeared into her room and shut the door behind her.
    “Leave her alone.”
    “Go see what’s the matter.”
    “No, I’ll go.”
    “Let me talk to her,” Alec said loudly and clearly. “She’ll talk to me. She hasn’t seen me in a long time.” He dropped his napkin on the table and left the room.
    “An actor ,” Rose whispered to her sister-in-law.
    When Alec opened the door, Elly was seated at the desk, her diary opened before her, slowly writing something. Alec closed the door, walked toward her silently and placed his long, slender hands on her shoulders. She recognized the touch and in one movement convulsively slammed the diary shut and, turning, threw her head on Alec’s chest.
    “What’s the matter, dear?” he asked.
    She stood up and walked to the sofa. She wiped her face with a handkerchief, extracted from her pocketbook. “Why are people so cruel? I swear I’ll never see him again, no matter what. I mean I suppose it’s nothing so terrible, but I don’t know—” This tumbled from her lips as she stared into her handkerchief.
    “Tell me,” Alec said, seating himself beside her.
    “Well, there’s this boy, this Eddie Roth, who hangs out at the corner and he’s kind of—well, retarded, you know, like a halfwit only not quite, and this boy, this Jerry—Momma hates him, she always told me he was no good—he makes fun of Eddie all the time. I just saw Eddie in the park. You know what they told him? They told him that I was crazy about him and I asked to meet him in the park today at three o’clock. I never in my whole life said anything like that to Jerry. Jerry told me Eddie wanted to tell me something. That’s why I went just now. He sort of stood there and when I told him they’d lied, that he was a nice boy but I didn’t want to go out with him, he stared at me for a long time and didn’t say anything. Then he began to cry and you know what he said? He said—I could hardly understand him he talks so funny—he said while he was crying and all, he said, ‘I thought maybe you loved me.’ My God, Uncle Alec, it’s not my fault! Oh, wait till I get Jerry Wilson. No, I’ll never see him again!”
    Alec held her to him while