Two Serious Ladies Read Online Free PDF

unimpressive and of very much the same build as Arnold. She was wearing a pink wrapper.
    "Welcome," said Miss Goering to Arnold's mother. "May I have a piece of your cake?"
    Arnold's mother, who was a very gauche woman, did not offer Miss Goering any of the cake; instead, hugging the platter close to her, she said to Miss Goering: "Have you known Arnold for long?"
    "No, I met your son tonight, at a party."
    "Well," said Arnold's mother, putting the tray down and sitting on the sofa, "I guess that isn't long, is it?"
    Arnold's father was "annoyed with his wife and showed it plainly in his face.
    "I hate that pink wrapper," he said.
    "Why do you talk about that now when there is company?"
    "Because the company doesn't make the wrapper look any different." He winked broadly at Miss Goering and then burst out laughing. Miss Goering again laughed heartily at his remark. Arnold was even glummer than he had been a moment before.
    "Miss Goering," said Arnold, "was afraid to go home alone, so I told her that she was welcome to sleep in the extra room. Although the bed isn't very comfortable in there, I think that she will at least have privacy."
    "And why " said Arnold's father, "was Miss Goering afraid to go home alone?"
    "Well," said Arnold, "it is not really very safe for a lady to wander about the streets or even to be in a taxi without an escort at so late an hour. Particularly if she has very far to go.
    Of course if she hadn't had so far to go I should naturally have accompanied her myself."
    "You sound like a sissy, the way you talk," said his father. "I thought that you and your friends were not afraid of such things. I thought you were wild ones and that rape meant no more to you than flying a balloon."
    "Oh, don't talk like that," said Arnold's mother, looking really horrified, "Why do you talk like that to them?"
    "I wish you would go to bed," Arnold's father said. "As a matter of fact, I am going to order you to go to bed. You are getting a cold."
    "Isn't he terrible?" said Arnold's mother, smiling at Miss Goering. "Even when there is company in the house he can't control his lion nature. He has a nature like a lion, roaring in the apartment all day long, and he gets so upset about Arnold and his friends."
    Arnold's father stamped out of the room and they heard a door slam down the hall.
    "Excuse me," said Arnold's mother to Miss Goering, "I didn't want to upset the party."
    Miss Goering was very annoyed, for she found the old man quite exhilarating, and Arnold himself was depressing her more and more.
    "I think I'll show you where you're going to sleep," said Arnold, getting up from the sofa and in so doing allowing some magazines to slide from his lap to the floor. "Oh, well," he said, "come this way. I'm pretty sleepy and disgusted with this whole affair."
    Miss Goering followed Arnold reluctantly down the hall.
    "Dear me," she said to Arnold, "I must confess that I am not sleepy. There is really nothing worse, is there?"
    "No, it's dreadful," said Arnold. "I personally am ready to fall down on the carpet and lie there until tomorrow noon, I am so completely exhausted."
    Miss Goering thought this remark a very inhospitable one and she began to feel a little frightened. Arnold was obliged to search for the key to the spare room, and Miss Goering was left standing alone in front of the door for some time.
    "Control yourself," she whispered out loud, for her heart was beginning to beat very quickly. She wondered how she had ever allowed herself to come so far from her house and Miss Gamelon. Arnold returned finally with the key and opened the door to the room.
    It was a very small room and much colder than the room in which they had been sitting. Miss Goering expected that Arnold would be extremely embarrassed about this, but although he shivered and rubbed his hands together, he said nothing. There were no curtains at the window, but there was a yellow shade, which had already been pulled down. Miss Goering threw herself