Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara

had to say? Or are you going to go into all that again?
    I m sorry.
    Well, Kitty, you know how she is. Comes right out with it. She said she heard Harry had a black eye, and I said yes, I knew he had. And she said Whit is worried. Did he say anything to you?
    No. He didn t get much chance, with Bobby holding forth. I didn t wait to talk to Whit.
    Well, apparently Whit knows Harry has money in the garage.
    Sure he knows. It s no secret. As a matter of fact I think I told Whit myself. Yes, I did. I had to tell him, because when Whit heard about it last summer he wanted to know why I hadn t come to him, and I told him everybody came to him. Didn t I tell you that?
    No, you didn t. But anyhow, Kitty said Whit s worried, because Harry is a bad man to have as an enemy. I told you that.
    I know you did. Well, we can t go on standing here like this. There s Jean and Froggy. Let s go over there.
    They went over there. Jean was Caroline s best friend, and Froggy was one of the group whom Julian regarded as his best friends. He had no single best friend, had had none since college. His best friend in college was with the Standard Oil in China, and he never heard from him except about once a year. With these people Julian felt safe and at ease. Froggy, thirty-four, was not quite five years older than Julian. Froggy had lost an arm in the war, and probably because of that Julian felt less close to him than to the other men of the same age who had been in France. Julian s war record had been made in college, as a member of the S.A.T.C., and he still had the feeling that he should have enlisted to fight and not to go to college. Year by year the feeling grew less strong, and he believed he did not care any more, but he still did. He always did when he saw Froggy for the first time on any day; Froggy, who had been a beautiful swimmer and tennis player. With Jean, Julian had complete ease. Everything that they ever could have been to each other, Jean and Julian had been. They had been passionately in love all one summer long ago; a demi-vierge affair that left them, when it did leave them finally, with a feeling toward each other which was far more innocent than that of two children, and made them ready really to love someone else. Julian knew, because Jean had told him, that she had gone the limit with Froggy the very first night she had a date alone with him, and Julian honestly believed he was glad for her. Now they talked about people who were visiting the So-and-sos; whether the Reading crowd was coming up for the dance; how swell or how perfectly terrible some of the girls looked; whether Julian had had a flat tire, as they had seen his car stopped on the road to the club; wasn t it wonderful, or wasn t it? the way the highway department got the roads clear so quickly; such a lovely corsage; oh, smoke a Camel, you can t tell the difference; Mill s father looks worse than ever; there was one thing about the Ammermanns, and that was when they gave a party they didn t spare the pennies. Then Mill and her mother and father were seen to take their places, standing just inside the ballroom (living-room when the furniture was not cleared away), and forming a little reception line. In less than three minutes there was a milling crowd in the foyer, all waiting to say good evening a bit stiffly to Mr. and Mrs. Ammermann, and a very friendly hello to Mill. The orchestra, Ben Riskin and his Royal Canadians, from Harrisburg, took their places and with two thumps of the bass drum burst forth into (boom boom) Oh, Give Me Something To Remember You By. Now please don t drink too much, said Caroline, and went to find her place at the festive board. II The festive board now groaned under the Baked Alaska. The Ammermann dinner party was just about over. Until one o clock the men, young and old, would see to it that Mill was not left standing without a partner; after that whatever dances she got she would have got without giving the dinner. Tomorrow s papers