“I don’t care. I just wanted some new dresses.”
“But why?”
“I gave you my reason.”
“But it doesn’t seem to me to be a good enough reason.” This was fine, he was really being firm now just as he had sworn he would. The thing was to figure everything out neatly, then to formulate a policy and pursue it. It worked, too. Look how rattled she was getting, even frightened. While he remained perfectly calm and in control of the situation, and above all, logical.
“You buy dresses because you want them, certainly, but why did you want them?”
“Charles, for heaven’s sake, be sensible. Don’t start acting in the same old way as soon as you get home.”
The same old way. Only the most obtuse of women could fail to notice the change in him. But he wouldn’t lose his temper, he would merely continue to pursue his policy of cold, firm reasoning.
“I simply desire to get to the bottom of things,” he said. “Why did you want the dresses?”
“For heaven’s sake...”
“Did you buy them for somebody? For me, perhaps? That’s it, isn’t it, Martha? You bought them for me, to please me.” He began walking toward her while she stared at him with the most comical expression of fear. “That was frightfully nice of you, to buy the dresses to please me. I’m terribly pleased. I knew there must be a reason, a real reason, and I’m so terribly pleased that that turns out to be the reason.”
He touched her shoulders. Under the silk robe her flesh was soft and boneless as apple pulp. Eventually, if he pressed his fingers down hard enough, he would feel the core. But the fact was he had no control over his fingers. They went down, down, they couldn’t help themselves, they were caught in quicksand. Down, down, on a little elevator. The core was there, plainly. Not an apple, a peach with a peachstone. The elevator crashed to the bottom of the shaft. It was dark, bloody dark, noisy dark, because people were screaming for help. They all got out except him. He was left alone in the dark shaft. The machinery of the elevator was smashed to pieces, but it wouldn’t stop whirring and whirring around him.
He had to scream to make himself heard: “Don’t go away, Martha, come back! We could be quite happy in an elevator shaft if you only realized it, and I’ll give you an allowance.”
By and by he saw her running across the lawn.
Later, when the whirring noise stopped making him dizzy, he would go after her. No matter how far, how fast she ran, he would find her and bring her home. He would be ill, and neither of them would ever leave his room again. Soon he must start running after her, but right now... right now...
I simply desire to get to the bottom of things.