“Thanks.”
She took it, and I fumbled around in the package with my forefinger.
“I believe I took the last one,” she said.
I shook the package, grinned, crushed it, said, “That’s all right. I’ll get more.”
“The waiter will bring some.”
“No. This is fine, thanks. I see a machine over there.”
I held a match to her cigarette, shook it out, got up, and walked over to the cigarette-vending machine. I pretended I was out of change, and went over to the bar to get some. After getting the package of cigarettes, I paused by the pinball machine and played a game. While I was doing that I slid my right hand down into my coat pocket, got hold of the discarded cigarettes I’d slipped out from the other package, crumbled them into a ball, and dropped them unobtrusively on the floor.
I finished my game on the pinball machine and managed to ring up a couple of free games.
I looked back over at the table. Marilyn was watching me, but Hale was leaning forward, pouring conversation into her ear. The three new drinks were on the table.
I waved my hand, called out, “This is velvet,” and turned back to the pinball machine.
Rosalind walked up to the cigarette-vending machine, fumbled in her purse for coins, said out of the comer of her mouth, “Don’t look up.”
I kept playing the pinball machine.
“Don’t make any play for me. It would cost me my job. She’s interested in you. When you walked out on her, it knocked her for a loop. But-don’t go overboard.”
“Why?”
“You’d be sorry.”
“Thanks.”
She picked up her cigarettes and turned away.
I swung around so I could see the mirror over the bar. Marilyn was watching her with the cold, unwinking stare of a snake regarding a young bird that has just fluttered to the ground.
I kept on shooting balls in the machine, used up my two free games, started feeding in coins.
Hale was really going to town. He’d worked up a lot of enthusiasm now, making gestures with his hands, looking in Marilyn’s eyes, occasionally letting his glance stray down to the bare shoulders.
I went back to the table.
Emory Hale was saying, “—exceedingly fascinating.”
Marilyn was giving him the steady eye. She said, “I’m glad you think so because I find mature people so much more interesting than the men of my own age. Somehow those younger men can’t seem to hold my attention. After a little while they bore me to distraction. Now why is that, Emory? Is there something wrong with me?”
He beamed across at her. At that particular moment he didn’t know I was anywhere in the country and she couldn’t see me without turning.
“Go on,” she pleaded. “If you know why it is, tell me.”
I cleared my throat. Neither of them looked up.
He said, “It’s because, my dear, you have such a fine mind. You can’t be interested in the mediocre banalities of adolescent conversation. Despite your beautiful body and your very evident youth, it’s quite apparent that you—”
I backed up a few steps, coughed loudly, and came walking toward the table.
Marilyn said, “We thought we’d lost you.”
“I went to buy some cigarettes.”
“I’ll take one,” she said.
Hale kept looking at her while I opened the package.
“How’s the pinball machine?” Marilyn asked.
“Pretty fair. I won a few.”
“Cash in?”
“No. Played back.”
“I always do that. They say it’s foolish. You should cash in your winnings.”
“I can’t see that it makes much difference.”
“If you don’t cash them in, the machine eventually cleans you.”
“It does anyway.”
She thought that over.
Emory Hale cleared his throat. “As I was saying, it is very seldom that one finds a mind capable of developing the mature outlook before—”
She said, “Oh, there’s the waiter — looking over this way. I guess he sees my glass is empty. He’s such a funny chap. Do you know if I sit here with an empty glass, he’ll stand there and stare at us as though he was trying to hypnotize me. Why, you have a drink there which you haven’t touched, Donald.”
I said, “That’s right. I should have taken it over to the pinball machine with me. Well, here’s happy days.”
“But I have nothing to drink with.”
“We’ll have to remedy that.”
Hale said, “I think you have the most wonderful hair.”
“Thanks... Joe, I’ll have another whisky and water.”
The waiter turned to Hale.
“Bring him another Coke and gin,” I said. “Fix it so he can taste it if you don’t want the party to go dead.”
The waiter looked at Hale, then looked at me. “Okay, what do you want?”
“This is a hold-over. I’m keeping it.”
He said, “You’re entitled to another drink at no extra charge. When you have a girl at the table, you—”
“I know all about that,” I told him. “Get these drinks before these people die of thirst in the middle of your night spot.”
Marilyn laughed at that.
Hale started rubbering around the room.
Marilyn took a deep drag at her cigarette and said casually, “You’ll find it through the archway in that next room.”
Hale seemed embarrassed. “I beg pardon.”
“That’s where it is.”
“What?”
“What you’re looking for.”
Hale cleared his throat, pushed back his chair, said with dignity, “Excuse me for a moment.”
“Guess he can’t take it too well,” I said, as she watched him cross the room.
“A lot of those old bozos can’t. He’s a nice guy, isn’t he, Donald?”
She was watching me intently.
“Uh huh.”
“You don’t seem to put much enthusiasm in it”
“What do you want me to do? Stand at attention or I jump up on the table and start waving a flag?”
“Don’t be silly. I just said he was a good guy.”
“Don’t be silly, yourself. I said he was, too.”
She looked down at the table for a while, then suddenly looked back up at me and smiled, that steady-eyed, direct smile which had such a suggestion of intimacy. “Don’t get me wrong, Donald. I mean that he’s a good enough guy, but — well, you know how it is. Youth appeals to youth and—”
“Go ahead,” I said, “finish it,” as she seemed to stall on dead center. “What does age appeal to?”
“Nothing.”
I laughed.
“It’s the God’s truth. The old women want young men, and the old men want the flappers. If the older men would give the older women just a little attention, it would make everybody a lot happier.” She kept her eyes on mine. “As for me, I want youth.”
She put her hand across the table and squeezed mine. “What did you say to that girl?”
“What girl?”
“The one who came over to use the cigarette machine when you were playing the pinball machine — Rosalind. You bought her a drink when you were here before — remember?”
I said, “I didn’t place her at first. I guess she’s sore. I kept looking at you when she was with me. She noticed it. I think it made her mad.”
“Oh.”
“Aren’t you and Emory getting along?” I asked.
“Oh, yes. Famously. Why?”
“I was wondering after what you said about older men and wanting youth.”
She smiled and said, “Oh, in a way he’s different. He’s so quaint and — sort of old-fashioned. He’s like a father to me. What does he do?”
“He’s a New York lawyer.”
“Oh, a lawyer! Successful?”