Page:Angna Enters - Among the Daughters.djvu/143

 she's finished eating I'll make a sketch. Holding a pear. She'll have to sit back a little, against the tree stump. Perhaps on it. She could take off her slippers and stockings.

"What a cute bottle. Can I have it when it's empty?"

"Sure."

"Let me taste." She crawled over the cloth and, holding on to his wrist, tipped the cup to her lips. Her eyes looked mischievously into his and he felt his face redden. As the wine reached her tongue, surprise replaced the other disturbing gaze and she pushed the cup away. "Ugh, it's sour, I thought it would be sweet! Do you really like this?"

Her little-girl distaste broke the spell. Uncontrollable laughter shook him and he leaned back in relief. It had been crazy to think her a woman. She did not like being laughed at and pouted. "I don't see what's funny. How can you like that sour stuff?"

"You're not old enough to appreciate it."

Lucy sat perfectly still, a small becalmed white yacht with unfathomable portholes for eyes, he thought. He corked the halfempty bottle, and lit a cigarette nervously.

"What do you say we get to work? Would you take off your shoes and stockings and sit back against the stump?"

"All right. Here?"

She was still offended, but a daddy longlegs cooperated in dissolving her reserve. She was a little girl again scrimmaging about as he cleared off the space, grinning. The woods stood indulgent, a stillness broken only by intermittent buzzings of exploring insects, an indignant bluejay, and the rhythmic counterpoint of the scratching pencil. Suddenly he was ravenous and with a free hand unwrapped a sandwich. Contrary to what he had told Lucy, he had eaten no breakfast.

Overwhelming drowsiness clung to a dangling heavy golden curl and toppled Lucy's head. She jerked upright. "Rest," Clem said contritely, "you're tired."

She abandoned herself to the ground and writhed in one long yawning curve from toes to fingertips. In the freedom of her movement she might have been a little stretching boy. This naturalness was one of her most disturbing characteristics, he thought, recalling instances when he had been embarrassed by her matter of fact reference to natural functions. Standing, he stretched too, distending his chest and flexing his arms; then lay down, but on the opposite side of the cloth. Rh