In the absurd and pitiful folly of youth I lifted the letter to my lips
and kissed it. I trembled with eagerness till the paper rattled as I
read it again and again. It seemed like some precious holy script.
I bolted my lunch nervously and it stuck half way down in a hard lump. I
would go to her that very afternoon.
* * * * *
The car on which I rode was subject to too frequent stoppage for me. I
leaped out and walked along with brisk strides. But the car sailed forth
ahead of me now on a long stretch of roadway and I ran after it to catch
it again. The conductor looked back at me in derisive scorn and made a
significant whirling motion near his temple with his index finger,
indicating that I had wheels there....
At last I found the street where Flora lived. I trailed from door to
door till the number she had given me met my eye. It made my heart jump
and my knees give in, to be so near the quarry. For the first time I was
to be alone with a woman I desired.
At the bell, it took me a long time to gain courage to pull. But at last
I reached out my hand. I had to stand my ground. I couldn't run away
now. The bell made a tinkling sound far within.
* * * * *
The door opened cautiously. A head of touseled black hair crept out.
"Johnnie, dear! _You_!... you _are_ a surprise!"
Did I really detect an echo of disappointment in her deep, contralto
voice?
Frightened in my heart like a trapped animal, I went in. Down a long,
dusk, musty-smelling corridor and into a back-apartment on the first
floor; she led me into a room which was bed-and-sitting room combined.
In one part of it stood several upholstered chairs with covers on,
cluttered about a plain table. In the other part stood a bureau heaped
with promiscuous toilette articles, and a huge, brass-knobbed bed with a
spread of lace over its great, semi-upright pillows.
"Shall I let in a little more light, dear?"
"Do."
For the blinds were two-thirds down.
"I like to sit and think in the dark," she explained, and her one dimple
broke in a rich, brown-faced animal smile.
"Yes, but I--I want to see your lovely face," I stuttered, with much
effort at gallantry....
* * * * *
"He's not at home ... he's off at Wilmington, on a job" (meaning her
husband, though I had not asked about him). "But what made you come so
soon? You must of just got my letter!"
"I--I wanted you," I blurted ... in the next moment I was at her feet in
approved romantic fashion, following up my declaration of desire. Calmly
she let me kneel there ... I put my arms about her plump legs ... I was
almost fainting....
After a while she took me by the hair with both hands. She slowly bent
my head back as I knelt. Leaning over, she kissed deliberately, deeply
into my mouth ... then, gazing into my eyes with a puzzled expression,
as I relaxed to her--almost like something inanimate....
"Why, you dear boy, I believe you're innocent like a child. And yet you
know so much about books ... and you're so wise, too!"
As she spoke she pushed back my mad hands from their clutching and
reaching. She held both of them in hers, and closed them in against her
half-uncovered, full breasts, pressing them there.
"Do you mean to tell me that you've never gone out with the boys for a
good time?... how old are you?"