law and when to make one.
‘Come on out,’ Nick said. ‘I wanna show him around to the boys.’ He nodded toward Toro with a laugh. ‘Follow me, half-pint.’
Acosta leant over and said under his breath, ‘Follow him.’ Toro nodded, in the obedient peasant way he had, carrying out Acosta’s imperative literally and walking directly in Nick’s footsteps with that slow awkward lope. Suddenly Nick stopped and said, half-kidding, ‘Tell ’im, for Christ sake, to stop walkin’ behind me. Makes me feel like I’m being tracked down by a neliphant.’
Acosta translated and Toro must have taken it for censure, for he hurried to catch up with Nick. In his haste, one of his ponderous feet tripped over a lamp wire and he lurched forward, almost losing his balance. He flailed the air clumsily to right himself. He was definitely no Nijinsky. But you couldn’t always tell by that. I’ve seen quite a few flat-footed, awkward fellows look pretty shifty and smart inside the ropes.
‘What was that, Eddie,’ Nick said, ‘a clean knock-down or just a slip?’
He turned to me with a wink and tapped me playfully on the jaw.
Beth was sitting on the terrace, alone and a little bewildered, for Beth.
‘Sorry to be so long,’ I said. ‘Everything okay?’
‘I’m glad I came,’ she said ambiguously. ‘But next time I think I’ll let you go alone.’
Maybe it had been a mistake to throw Beth in with Nick’s crowd. She was a girl who had made an easy adjustment from Amherst to New York, but you didn’t have to be a clairvoyant to see that this was a world she never knew and didn’t want to know. And yet, in spite of herself, she found herself curiously attracted to all this, as to a sideshow of freaks. She telegraphed me a quick smile with a suggestion of panic in it.
‘What are the amenities about the hostess in this party?’ she asked.
‘Oh, Ruby can take her guests or leave them. I kind of like Ruby.’
‘She makes me nervous. I haven’t been able to talk with her. I tried my best, and it wasn’t good enough to take her away from the book she was reading.’
I took Beth by the arm and led her over to Ruby, who was stretched out on a lawn couch on wheels. When she looked up at us, I said, ‘What book you reading?’
She held it up for us to see. ‘It’s the Number One Bestseller,’ Ruby said. It was one of those eight-hundred-page packages with the cover featuring a seventeenth-century Hedy Lamarr bursting her bodice.
The Countess Misbehaved
, this one was called.
Ruby spent most of her time in the country reading novels like this Countess business. I know Nick was rather proud of her intellectual pursuits, the way she went through these books week after week. ‘We’ve got a hell of a library out there,’ Nick had told me. ‘I’ll bet Ruby knocks off three books a week. Remembers what she reads too.’ So Ruby, who had never exposed her lovely, unlined face tothe pressure of literature until she got out in the country and didn’t know what to do with herself, had developed an intimate relationship with European history. She could talk with as much authority about the back-stair affairs of the hot-blooded ladies-in-waiting at the court of Charles I as she could about the marital difficulties of Ethel her cook.
When Ruby wasn’t consuming her marshmallow history, she was either driving to church in her station wagon or drinking Manhattans. Her life in the country seemed to break up into those three phases. She was sentimental about her religion and retained a schoolgirl’s admiration and sense of responsibility to her devotions. The only thing that would get her out of bed before noon was church services, if her hangover wasn’t too bad. The nipping usually started around three. I stayed out there through a week once to get some work done, and Ruby would come down for cocktails every evening with a good three-hour start. An outsider might not have been able to tell the difference. She
‘Come on out,’ Nick said. ‘I wanna show him around to the boys.’ He nodded toward Toro with a laugh. ‘Follow me, half-pint.’
Acosta leant over and said under his breath, ‘Follow him.’ Toro nodded, in the obedient peasant way he had, carrying out Acosta’s imperative literally and walking directly in Nick’s footsteps with that slow awkward lope. Suddenly Nick stopped and said, half-kidding, ‘Tell ’im, for Christ sake, to stop walkin’ behind me. Makes me feel like I’m being tracked down by a neliphant.’
Acosta translated and Toro must have taken it for censure, for he hurried to catch up with Nick. In his haste, one of his ponderous feet tripped over a lamp wire and he lurched forward, almost losing his balance. He flailed the air clumsily to right himself. He was definitely no Nijinsky. But you couldn’t always tell by that. I’ve seen quite a few flat-footed, awkward fellows look pretty shifty and smart inside the ropes.
‘What was that, Eddie,’ Nick said, ‘a clean knock-down or just a slip?’
He turned to me with a wink and tapped me playfully on the jaw.
Beth was sitting on the terrace, alone and a little bewildered, for Beth.
‘Sorry to be so long,’ I said. ‘Everything okay?’
‘I’m glad I came,’ she said ambiguously. ‘But next time I think I’ll let you go alone.’
Maybe it had been a mistake to throw Beth in with Nick’s crowd. She was a girl who had made an easy adjustment from Amherst to New York, but you didn’t have to be a clairvoyant to see that this was a world she never knew and didn’t want to know. And yet, in spite of herself, she found herself curiously attracted to all this, as to a sideshow of freaks. She telegraphed me a quick smile with a suggestion of panic in it.
‘What are the amenities about the hostess in this party?’ she asked.
‘Oh, Ruby can take her guests or leave them. I kind of like Ruby.’
‘She makes me nervous. I haven’t been able to talk with her. I tried my best, and it wasn’t good enough to take her away from the book she was reading.’
I took Beth by the arm and led her over to Ruby, who was stretched out on a lawn couch on wheels. When she looked up at us, I said, ‘What book you reading?’
She held it up for us to see. ‘It’s the Number One Bestseller,’ Ruby said. It was one of those eight-hundred-page packages with the cover featuring a seventeenth-century Hedy Lamarr bursting her bodice.
The Countess Misbehaved
, this one was called.
Ruby spent most of her time in the country reading novels like this Countess business. I know Nick was rather proud of her intellectual pursuits, the way she went through these books week after week. ‘We’ve got a hell of a library out there,’ Nick had told me. ‘I’ll bet Ruby knocks off three books a week. Remembers what she reads too.’ So Ruby, who had never exposed her lovely, unlined face tothe pressure of literature until she got out in the country and didn’t know what to do with herself, had developed an intimate relationship with European history. She could talk with as much authority about the back-stair affairs of the hot-blooded ladies-in-waiting at the court of Charles I as she could about the marital difficulties of Ethel her cook.
When Ruby wasn’t consuming her marshmallow history, she was either driving to church in her station wagon or drinking Manhattans. Her life in the country seemed to break up into those three phases. She was sentimental about her religion and retained a schoolgirl’s admiration and sense of responsibility to her devotions. The only thing that would get her out of bed before noon was church services, if her hangover wasn’t too bad. The nipping usually started around three. I stayed out there through a week once to get some work done, and Ruby would come down for cocktails every evening with a good three-hour start. An outsider might not have been able to tell the difference. She
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