He was first to ask finally:
"Did you get my wire?"
"Oh, yes. Thanks."
"Don't you want to know how I'm getting along in the city?"
"Sure. How are you getting along in the city?"
"Look here, you're not terribly interested."
"Oh, but I am! I want to know everything about you."
"Why don't you ask?"
"You'll tell me when you want to."
"It doesn't matter much to you, does it?"
"What?"
"What I've been doing."
"Oh ... Yes, it does, Peter. No, not too much."
"That's sweet of you!"
"But, you see, it's not what you do that matters really. It's only you."
"Me what?"
"Just you here. Or you in the city. Or you somewhere in the world. I don't know. Just that."
"You know, you're a fool, Katie. Your technique is something awful."
"My what?"
"Your technique. You can't tell a man so shamelessly, like that, that you're practically crazy about him."
"But I am."
"But you can't say so. Men won't care for you."
"But I don't want men to care for me."
"You want me to, don't you?"
"But you do, don't you?"
"I do," he said, his arms tightening about her. "Damnably. I'm a bigger fool than you are."
"Well, then it's perfectly all right," she said, her fingers in his hair, "isn't it?"
"It's always been perfectly all right, that's the strangest part about it ... But look, I want to tell you about what's happened to me, because it's important."
"I'm really very interested, Peter."
"Well, you know I'm working for Francon & Heyer and ... Oh, hell, you don't even know what that means!"
"Yes, I do. I've looked them up in Who's Who in Architecture. It said some very nice things about them. And I asked Uncle. He said they were tops in the business."
"You bet they are. Francon — he's the greatest designer in New York, in the whole country, in the world maybe. He's put up seventeen skyscrapers, eight cathedrals, six railroad terminals and God knows what else ... Of course, you know, he's an old fool and a pompous fraud who oils his way into everything and ... " He stopped, his mouth open, staring at her. He had not intended to say that. He had never allowed himself to think that before.
She was looking at him serenely. "Yes?" she asked. "And ... ?"
"Well ... and ... " he stammered, and he knew that he could not speak differently, not to her, "and that's what I really think of him. And I have no respect for him at all. And I'm delighted to be working for him. See?"
"Sure," she said quietly. "You're ambitious, Peter."
"Don't you despise me for it?"
"No. That's what you wanted."
"Sure, that's what I wanted. Well, actually, it's not as bad as that. It's a tremendous firm, the best in the city. I'm really doing good work, and Francon is very pleased with me. I'm getting ahead. I think I can have any job I want in the place eventually ... Why, only tonight I took over a man's work and he doesn't know that he'll be useless soon, because ... Katie! What am I saying?"
"It's all right, dear. I understand."
"If you did, you'd call me the names I deserve and make me stop it."
"No, Peter. I don't want to change you. I love you, Peter."
"God help you!"
"I know that."
"You know that? And you say it like this? Like you'd say, 'Hello, it's a beautiful evening'?"
"Well, why not? Why worry about it? I love you."
"No, don't worry about it! Don't ever worry about it! ... Katie ... I'll never love anyone else ... "
"I know that too."
He held her close, anxiously, afraid that her weightless little body would vanish. He did not know why her presence made him confess things unconfessed in his own mind. He did not know why the victory he came here to share had faded. But it did not matter. He had a peculiar sense of freedom — her presence always lifted from him a pressure he could not define — he was alone — he was himself. All that mattered to him now was the feeling of her coarse cotton blouse against his wrist.
Then he was asking her about her own life in New York and she was speaking happily about her uncle.
"He's wonderful, Peter. He's really wonderful. He's quite poor, but he took me in and he was so gracious about it he gave up his study to make a room for me and now he has to work here, in the living room. You must meet him, Peter. He's away now, on a lecture tour, but you must meet him when he comes back."
"Sure, I'd love to."
"You know, I wanted to go to work, and be on my own, but he wouldn't let me. 'My dear child,' he said, 'not at seventeen. You don't want me to be ashamed of myself, do you? I don't believe in child labor.' That was kind of a funny idea, don't you think? He has so many funny ideas — I don't understand them all, but they say he's a brilliant man. So he made it look as if I were doing him a favor by letting him keep me, and I think that was really very decent of him."
"What do you do with yourself all day long?"
"Nothing much of anything now. I read books. On architecture. Uncle has tons of books on architecture. But when he's here I type his lectures for him. I really don't think he likes me to do it, he prefers the typist he had, but I love it and he lets me. And he pays me her salary. I didn't want to take it, but he made me."
"What does he do for a living?"
"Oh, so many things, I don't know, I can't keep track of them. He teaches art history, for one, he's a kind of professor."
"And when are you going to college, by the way?"
"Oh ... Well ... well, you see, I don't think Uncle approves of the idea. I told him how I'd always planned to go and that I'd work my own way through, but he seems to think it's not for me. He doesn't say much, only: 'God made the elephant for toil and the mosquito for flitting about, and it's not advisable, as a rule, to experiment with the laws of nature, however, if you want to try it, my dear child ... ' But he's not objecting really, it's up to me, only ... "
"Well, don't let him stop you."
"Oh, he wouldn't want to stop me. Only, I was thinking, I was never any great shakes in high school, and, darling, I'm really quite utterly lousy at mathematics, and so I wonder ... but then, there's no hurry, I've got plenty of time to decide."
"Listen, Katie, I don't like that. You've always planned on college. If that uncle of yours ... "
"You shouldn't say it like this. You don't know him. He's the most amazing man. I've never met anyone quite like him. He's so kind, so understanding. And he's such fun, always joking, he's so clever at it, nothing that you thought was serious ever seems to be when he's around, and yet he's a very serious man. You know, he spends hours talking to me, he's never too tired and he's not bored with my stupidity, he tells me all about strikes, and conditions in the slums, and the poor people in the sweatshops, always about others, never about himself. A friend of his told me that Uncle could be a very rich man if he tried, he's so clever, but he won't, he just isn't interested in money."
"That's not human."
"Wait till you see him. Oh, he wants to meet you, too. I've told him about you. He calls you 'the T-square Romeo.'"
"Oh, he does, does he?"
"But you don't understand. He means it kindly. It's the way he says things. You'll have a lot in common. Maybe he could help you. He knows something about architecture, too. You'll love Uncle Ellsworth."
"Who?" said Keating.
"My uncle."
"Say," Keating asked, his voice a little husky, "what's your
uncle's name?"
"Ellsworth Toohey. Why?" His hands fell limply. He sat staring at her. "What's the matter, Peter?"
He swallowed. She saw the jerking motion of his throat. Then he said, his voice hard:
"Listen, Katie, I don't want to meet your uncle."