Page:Angna Enters - Among the Daughters.djvu/271

, flung open a window, threw the wilting flowers into a wastebasket, turned on three lamps and one off, emptied ashtrays, gathered up newspapers, and arranged chairs with housewifely verve. When all was in order she brought from the bedroom an atomizer and sprayed the room with cologne. "Phui! I cannot abide disorder and the stench of smoke. You must sit in this chair, it is more comfortable," she ordered Lucy who wondered whether Simone would never settle down. At last she did, after rinsing out the glasses and ordering more ice.

Five thirty, struck the clock, happily signaling the visit to begin. Lucy accepted the iced minted gin and agreed it was refreshing.

"And good for the stomach as well," Simone said, wagging a corroborating finger. She tinkled the ice in her glass and then drank, looking into Lucy's eyes in an intimate way. The look made Lucy feel shy and hot. For goodness sake, she thought, blushing at my age.

"Tell me about Chicago."

"Chicago!"

"Yes. In Paris someone said, Simone, you must visit Chicago. New York is not America, only in Chicago you will find it."

"I've only been in Chicago long enough to change trains when I was coming to New York. I didn't like it. It looked dirty."

"Sometimes one enjoys what one does not like. You are not from New York?"

"I'm from out West, but I'm a New Yorker now."

"Ah yes, the West and cowboys. They must be most attractive?"

"I never saw any, except in the movies. I lived in Denver, that's another big city, and then Mother and I lived in a small town just long enough to earn money to get to New York. You see, I always wanted to be a dancer," Lucy recited, wishing she did not sound so childish.

"And so now you are a première danseuse, and so young. But it is such a hard life. All work, practice, and no play, no?"

"Oh," and to Simone the child smile in the slanting blue precocious eyes became disturbingly knowing, "I have plenty of fun. To tell the truth, I don't practice as hard as I ought to."

"Indeed?" A premonitory fear dried Simone's throat as she examined the girl's contented expression. Fun meant only one game. How much of this game was played with Paul? She took a sip to loosen her voice and decided to approach Paul through another 259