"I'm on the collar now. In a second." There was a little silence. Then:
"Floss, is--is Henry going to call for you--here?"
"Well, sure! Did you think I was going to meet him on the corner? He
said he wanted to see you, or something polite like that."
She finished her tea and vanished again. Al, too, had disappeared to
begin that process from which he had always emerged incredibly sleek,
and dapper and perfumed. His progress with shaving brush, shirt, collar
and tie was marked by disjointed bars of the newest syncopation whistled
with an uncanny precision and fidelity to detail. He caught the broken
time, and tossed it lightly up again, and dropped it, and caught it
deftly like a juggler playing with frail crystal globes that seem
forever on the point of crashing to the ground.
Pa stood up, yawning. "Well," he said, his manner very casual, "guess
I'll just drop around to the movie."