“What was in the letters?” the young man asked.
“There were checks in some.”
“Big ones?”
“Two.”
“That’s fine,” he said.
“Don’t go away like that. You always said it never made any difference.”
“Have I said anything?”
“No. You just went away.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “How big are they?”
“Not much really. But good for us. They’ve been deposited. It’s because I’m married. I told you it was the best thing for us to be married. I know it doesn’t mean anything as capital but this is spendable. We can spend it and it doesn’t hurt anybody and it’s for that. It doesn’t have anything to do with regular income nor what I get if I live to be twenty-five or if I ever live to be thirty. This is ours for anything we want to do. Neither of us will have to worry about balances for a while. It’s that simple.”
“The book has paid back the advance and made about a thousand dollars,” he said.
“Isn’t that awfully good when it’s only just come out?”
“It’s all right. Should we have another one of these?” he asked.
“Let’s drink something else.”
“How much vermouth did you drink?”
“Only the one. I must say it was dull.”
“I drank two and didn’t even taste them.”
“What is there that’s real?” she said.
“Did you ever drink Armagnac and soda? That’s real enough.”
“Good. Let’s try that.”
The waiter brought the Armagnac and the young man told him to bring a cold bottle of Perrier water instead of the syphon. The waiter poured two large Armagnacs and the young man put ice in the big glasses and poured in the Perrier.
“This will fix us,” he said. “It’s a hell of a thing to drink before lunch though.”
The girl took a long sip. “It’s good,” she said. “It has a fresh clean healthy ugly taste.” She took another long sip. “I can really feel it. Can you?”
“Yes,” he said and took a deep breath. “I can feel it.”
She drank from the glass again and smiled and the laugh wrinkles came at the corner of her eyes. The cold Perrier had made the heavy brandy alive.
“For heroes,” he said.
“I don’t mind being a hero,” she said. “We’re not like other people. We don’t have to call each other darling or my dear or my love nor any of that to make a point. Darling and my dearest and my very dearest and all that are obscene to me and we call each other by our Christian names. You know what I’m trying to say. Why do we have to do other things like everyone does?”
“You’re a very intelligent girl.”
“All right Davie,” she said. “Why do we have to be stuffy? Why don’t we keep on and travel now when it can never be more fun? We’ll do everything you want. If you’d been a European with a lawyer my money would have been yours any way. It is yours.”
“The hell with it.”
“All right. The hell with it. But we’ll spend it and I think it’s wonderful. You can write afterwards. That way we can have the fun before I have a baby for one thing. How do I know when I’ll have a baby even? Now it’s all getting dull and dusty talking about it. Can’t we just do it and not talk about it?”
“What if I want to write? The minute you’re not going to do something it will probably make you want to do it.”
“Then write, stupid. You didn’t say you wouldn’t write. Nobody said anything about worrying if you wrote. Did they?”
But somewhere something had been said and now he could not remember it because he had been thinking ahead.
“If you want to write go ahead and I’ll amuse myself. I don’t have to leave you when you write do I?”
“But where would you like us to go now when people begin to come here?”
“Anywhere you want to go. Will you do it, David?”
“For how long?”
“For as long as we want. Six months. Nine months. A year.”
“All right,” he said.