ACROSS the RIVER and INTO the TREES by ERNEST HEMINGWAY

“Will we see them when we make the long trip and stop at all the filling stations or comfort stations or what­ever they are called?”

“Lodges and Tourist Camps,” the Colonel said. “Those others we stop at; but not for the night.”

“I want so much for us to roll up to a comfort station and plank down my money and tell them to fill her up and check the oil, Mac, the way it is in American books or in the films.”

“That’s a filling station.”

“Then what is a comfort station?”

“Where you go, you know—”

“Oh,” the girl said and blushed. “I’m sorry. I want to learn American so much. But I suppose I shall say bar­barous things the way you do sometimes in Italian.”

“It is an easy language. The further West you go the straighter and the easier it becomes.”

The Gran Maestro brought the breakfast and the odor of it, although it did not spread through the room, due to the silver covers on the dishes, came to them steady and as broiled bacon and kidneys, with the dark lusterless smell of grilled mushrooms added.

“It looks lovely,” the girl said. “Thank you very much, Gran Maestro. Should I talk American?” she asked the Colonel. She extended her hand to the Gran Maestro lightly, and fastly, so that it darted as a rapier does, and said, “Put it there, Pal. This grub is tops.”

The Gran Maestro said, “Thank you, my lady.”

“Should I have said chow instead of grub?” the girl asked the Colonel.

“They are really interchangeable.”

“Did they talk like that out West when you were a boy? What would you say at breakfast?”

“Breakfast was served, or offered up, by the cook. He would say, ‘Come and get it, you sons of bitches, or I’ll throw it away.’ ”

“I must learn that for in the country. Sometimes when we have the British Ambassador and his dull wife for dinner I will teach the footman, who will announce dinner, to say, ‘Come and get it, you son of bitches, or we will throw it away.’ ”

“He’d devaluate,” the Colonel said. “At any rate, it would be an interesting experiment.”

“Tell me something I can say in true American to the pitted one if he comes in. I will just whisper it in his ear as though I were making a rendezvous, as they did in the old days.”

“It would depend on how he looks. If he is very de­jected looking, you might whisper to him, ‘Listen, Mac. You hired out to be tough, didn’t you?’ ”

“That’s lovely,” she said and repeated it in a voice she had learned from Ida Lupino. “Can I say it to the Gran Maestro?”

“Sure. Why not. Gran Maestro!”

The Gran Maestro came over and leaned forward at­tentively.

“Listen, Mac. You hired out to be tough, didn’t you?” the girl hard-worded him.

“I did indeed,” the Gran Maestro said. “Thank you for stating it so exactly.”

“If that one comes in and you wish to speak to him after he has eaten, just whisper in his ear, ‘Wipe the egg off your chin, Jack, and straighten up and fly right.’ ”

“I’ll remember it and I’ll practice it at home.”

“What are we going to do after breakfast?”

“Should we go up and look at the picture and see if it is of any value, I mean any good, in daylight?”

“Yes,” the Colonel said.

CHAPTER XXVII

UPSTAIRS the room was already done and the Colonel, who had anticipated a possible messiness of locale, was pleased.

“Stand by it once,” he said. Then remembered to add, “Please.”

She stood by it, and he looked at it from where he had looked at it last night.

“There’s no comparison, of course,” he said. “I don’t mean likeness. The likeness is excellent.”

“Was there supposed to be a comparison?” the girl asked, and swung her head back and stood there with the black sweater of the portrait.

“Of course not. But last night, and at first light, I talked to the portrait as though it were you.”

“That was nice of you and shows it has served some useful purpose.”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *